Eriette, and Why Art Matters
Welcome back to another edition of Variant Vault, where I organize Magic: the Gathering card variants by price from most to least expensive to determine which variant is best for you.
Today I’ll be focusing on how art can impact value and collectability using
Eriette is the stand-out commander of
With her price having mellowed post-release, I thought now would be as good of a time as any to discuss her.
The Lists
Eriette has seven total variants across English treatments and printings. All prices used were gathered from the MTGStocks price database as of 12/27/2023. The full list of all these variants by price can be found below, in order from most to least expensive.
Eriette of the Charmed Apple Variant Prices:
|
Foil |
Non-Foil |
|
Prerelease (Art by Magali Villeneuve) (98555): $14.12 |
Promo Pack (Art by Magali Villeneuve) (98462): $5.96 |
|
Promo Pack (Art by Magali Villeneuve) (98462): $12.49 |
Standard (Art by Magali Villeneuve) (97368): $1.98 |
|
Standard (Art by Magali Villeneuve) (97368): $4.29 |
Borderless (Art by Zach Alexander) (97471): $0.88 |
|
Borderless (Art by Zach Alexander) (97471): $3.46 |
N/A |
Most Collectible Variants
Going into my initial perusing, I assumed the foil borderless variant of Eriette of the Charmed Apple would be the most expensive, based on the “Collecting Wilds of Eldraine” article Wizards of the Coast published. However, I was surprised to find out that the foil borderless variant is the cheapest foil version at $3.46. In actuality, the most expensive version of Eriette is the Prerelease Promo Foil coming in at $14.12. It’s also selling at that price with eight sales recorded on TCGPlayer in the past month.
I marked the artist next to the price because it tells a clear story. The standard non-foil variant of Eriette with art by Magali Villeneuve has a 2x multiplier in price compared to the borderless non-foil with art by Zach Alexander. The community appears to have gravitated around Magali Villeneuve’s interpretation of the character, which makes a lot of sense considering Villeneuve is a household name when it comes to fantasy art in and outside of Magic: The Gathering. Even before the card was previewed, Wizards of the Coast was touting Villeneuve’s piece for Eriette as a key piece of art for the set. Magic content creators like Vagabond Gallery even declared it as “one of her most accomplished works yet,” and the player base seems to agree.
While art is subjective and Zach Alexander created an awesome piece for Eriette’s borderless version in his own right, the clear preference for Villeneuve’s version of the card is reflected in its higher price. Among the variants of Eriette with Villeneuve’s art, the prices organize themselves based on how hard it is to acquire said variant. In the case of Erriete’s Prerelease Promo Foil, listings of it are few and far between, with only a handful available across all the major selling platforms. Prerelease promos can only be found in Prerelease packs, and since those are primarily opened during Prerelease weekend, that’s the main time that the market receives a sizable supply of this variant injected into it. The combination of these factors has led to the Prerelease Promo Foil of Eriette of the Charmed Apple taking the place as the most collectible and desirable variant of Eriette financially.
Most Affordable Variants
As can be assumed based on the previous paragraph, the most affordable copy of Eriete of the Charmed Apple is her borderless non-foil at $0.88. Although Eriete’s non-foil borderless version sales rate is about half that of the standard non-foil (133 confirmed sales for the borderless non-foil versus 262 confirmed sales for the standard non-foil over the past 30 days on TCGPlayer), that doesn’t change the fact that they are functionally the same card. If you just need a copy of Eriette for the lowest price possible, then you can get a wonderful borderless copy for half the price of the standard non-foil and one-sixteenth of the price of the Prerelease Promo. In general, most of Eriette’s variants can be acquired for less than the price of a pack, which is always nice to see.
| Eriette of the Charmed Apple | ||
| Eriette of the Charmed Apple | ||
| Eriette of the Charmed Apple | ||
| Eriette of the Charmed Apple (Borderless) |
And They All Lived Happily Ever After
Thank you so much for reading! If you haven’t already, make sure to give MTGStocks Premium a look for more cool Magic finance stuff. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and come back next time, when I’ll be covering the iconic
Further Reading:
Cards in Eriette Decks That I Like
Max Kennel started playing Magic with the release of Shadows Over Innistrad. His primary formats of play are EDH and Limited. Outside of Magic, Max can be found writing all sorts of stuff from prose, to film, to plays such as The Story of Jimmy Kaplingus. His favorite commander deck at the moment is his Mono-Black Artifact/Aristocrats deck with Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist at the helm.
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