From the moment it was announced, Alchemy has been a deeply controversial MTG format. Sadly, things haven’t improved much over time, as rebalances have been both contentious and lackluster. Between accusations of stealing cards and straining development resources, it’s very easy to hate Alchemy.
Despite being an easy target, Alchemy definitely has its supporters. I should know, I’m one of them. On top of these devoted players, it appears Alchemy now has a weird collectible appeal too. This has been facilitated by Mystery Booster 2, which brought Alchemy cards out of the digital realm and physically printed them.
Now that Mystery Booster 2 has started to be delivered to players, these cards have proven to be surprisingly lucrative. While it’s still early days, Alchemy MTG cards from Mystery Booster 2 are selling for over $300! This remarkable price, however, may have little to do with the actual cards themselves.
A Very Expensive Clockmaker
Currently, Rusko, Clockmaker, is one of the most expensive cards from the entirety of Mystery Booster 2. The only card more expensive right now is the fancy foil variant of Urza, Lord High Artificer. This card has sold for as high as $600, although Rusko isn’t far behind this worryingly impressive feat.
So far, sales for Rusko, Clockmaker have hit $400, however, they’ve fallen a touch since then. The singular available listing is only for $219.99 which is a good deal less than past sales. Notably, only foil copies of Rusko, Clockmaker are available, which is the main reason they’re so expensive.
Somewhat bizarrely, the Alchemy cards in Mystery Booster 2, which are also Acorn cards, are exclusively foil and exceptionally rare. According to Wizards, these cards only appear in “less than 1% of boosters.” This puts them on the same level of rarity as serialized cards. If anything, these new Alchemy Acorn cards might be even rarer.
While serialized cards are strictly limited run, Mystery Booster 2 technically has the same quality. After all, only so many copies of the Festival in a Box are available via the Secret Lair website. That said, Wizards may reprint Mystery Booster 2 for future MagicCons, and the total print numbers remain unknown.
It’s worth noting that every single copy of Mystery Booster 2 has not yet been opened and cracked. Due to this, prices may fall once more deliveries reach players’ hands. Whether or not this will happen, however, remains to be seen. For now, Rusko, Clockmaker is an exceptionally expensive MTG card.
Expensive but Unplayable
In total, Mystery Booster 2 contains seven Alchemy cards, each one of which is poised to be expensive. So far, only three cards have any recorded sales on TCGplayer. These cards are Rusko, Oracle of the Alpha, and Tenacious Pup. Despite each of these cards being equally rare, Oracle of the Alpha has sold for $300, while Tenacious Pup has only sold for $183.
In reality, this price difference isn’t surprising at all considering stronger MTG cards tend to sell for more. While this is an obvious trend in MTG, technically each Alchemy Acorn card is equally useless. Since these cards are Acorn cards they can’t be played in any casual or constructed formats.
If you want to play any of these cards in Commander, you’ll need to facilitate them through rule zero. This becomes a very expensive conversation if your deck contains several hundred dollars of Alchemy cards. Considering cards like Rusko, Clockmaker are interesting, albeit slightly broken, hopefully, these conversations will go over smoothly.
Outside of Commander, there has been a lot of interest in the Alchemy Acorn cards for Vintage Cubes. Oracle of the Alpha, in particular, offers exactly the kind of wacky high-power shenanigans that many players crave. The fact these cards are now available officially on paper is great for these fans, although the price obviously isn’t perfect.
With this playability or lack thereof, in mind, it seems the price is almost entirely down to their scarcity. Even if there aren’t many collectors and would-be players for these cards, their supply is exceedingly limited. Unless this changes, it seems Alchemy cards are going to be weirdly expensive on paper from here on out.
Read More: Multiple $90+ MTG Cards Just Got Banned in Commander
