Considering Evendo, Waking Haven and Uthros, Titanic Godcore
Today we talk about quasi-functional reprints, strictly worse versions of existing cards, and the financial prospects of two upcoming singles that are ripe with discussion:
Quasi-Functional Reprints & Strictly Worse Reprints
The title of this section of the article is somewhat cynical, I admit, but we have to be honest in that there’s a clear line between a strictly worse version of a pre-existing card and a non-functional version that seeks to emulate its superior iteration. We’ll call these reprints “quasi-functional” reprints for lack of a better word. To call them strictly worse is probably dishonest.
To contrast the recent cycle of lands from
Unsurprisingly, many different types of counterspells exist. Consider a card like Cancel, which is one generic mana more expensive than Counterspell. Aside from this one difference, the cards are functionally identical. Their rules texts are identical, thus the only key difference between the two is their respective mana costs. Cancel is what we call a “strictly worse” version of Counterspell.
In essence, in order to call a card strictly worse, the only discernible difference between it and its counterpart has to really be its mana cost, or perhaps a built-in drawback. For example, the Shocklands, which are some of the most popular lands in the format, are technically strictly worse versions of the original dual lands, wherein their drawback is that you must pay two life to have them enter untapped, while the original duals enter untapped with no drawback – for example,
This brings us to the mythic land cycle (or Station lands, I suppose) from Edge of Eternities. Of note are Uthros, Titanic Godcore and Evendo, Waking Haven, which I would categorize as “quasi-functional” reprints of Tolarian Academy and Gaea’s Cradle, respectively. To call these strictly worse is somewhat unfair given that their design space is much different than their predecessors. Having said that, both of these new singles are significantly less potent than their superior versions.
Both of these have received significant hype upon their respective official spoilers - or leaks. Let's dive into each of them and their potential financial futures.
Uthros, Titanic Godcore
Uthros is worthy of more discussion than Evendo for one reason:
As of this article, Uthros is pre-ordering at $60, and looks to be the standout card of the base set for all intents and purposes. Interestingly, Tolarian Academy as a card banned in almost every format is still commanding a whopping $180 for collectors interested in owning a copy for their cubes, nostalgia, or Vintage, I suppose. Make no mistake, the effect Tolarian Academy provides is one of the most powerful ever stapled onto a land. But Uthros, despite its novelty, still falls far short of Tolarian’s excellence.
Its first major drawback is that it enters tapped. For most formats, especially Modern or Pioneer, this means that it will likely cost you your land drop just to play this card with no immediate benefit to it until subsequent turns come to pass. Secondly, it requires a cost of 12 to Station it, which is kind of like leveling it up with the power of your creatures; Twelve is a lot in the decks that would seek to capitalize on this particular card. Finally, in order to actually activate this ability, you have to pay a blue mana into it, and then tap, which is another deviation from the original Tolarian Academy, which didn’t possess an activation cost outside of tapping it.
Most Affinity archetypes or Cheerios decks that would extract the most value from this particular card usually struggle to create enough combined power to Station this card early enough for it to have an impact on the game. While Construct tokens from
In theory, there are some crafty ways around this. You could imagine a situation where you Station Uthros with a small creature, and then lean into Proliferate effects to increase the charge counters without outright Stationing your land much further. Alternatively, if your creatures are predominantly artifact creatures, you can Station Uthros, and then use untap effects like
As you can probably garner, both of the above methods are super manual, and not particularly elegant. While it’s possible for Uthros to see Modern play, I still highly doubt it. The investment in this land yields a return that is oftentimes too little, too late in the current meta to make an impact on the game.
In all likelihood, this land will be relegated to Commander, where it’s simply a good land in artifact-centric shells in lieu of Tolarian Academy being legal. This land is probably between $12 and $15 once the dust settles after release – maybe even less.
| Uthros, Titanic Godcore | ||
| Uthros, Titanic Godcore (Borderless) |
Evendo, Waking Haven
Much like Uthros, Evendo emulates Tolarian Academy’s counterpart from Urza’s Saga: Gaea’s Cradle. Gaea’s Cradle is arguably the best land legal in the Commander format and attempts to emulate its essence have been done once before with
Growing Rites is interesting from a design standpoint, as it’s an enchantment that flips into a Gaea’s Cradle after certain conditions are met. However, upon entering it allows you to look at the top four cards of your deck and pick a creature among them to put into your hand, effectively giving you one creature potentially towards the four necessary for flipping it. This feature makes it mechanically very different from either Evendo or Gaea’s Cradle. Having said that, Growing Rites is far easier to convert into a Gaea’s Cradle effect and remains untapped when it’s converted to Cradle of Sun (Tolarian Academy received a similar quasi-reprint in Ixalan with
The interesting aspect of all this is that Growing Rites is a bulk rare from a value standpoint, despite being far more serviceable than Evendo, practically speaking. Preorder price data for this chase mythic is scant, but given its inferiority to Growing Rites, I would strongly advocate against heavily speculating on this card in most competitive formats. This single will probably land somewhere between $5 and $10 after the dust settles.
While this may seem like a very negative take on a card, Evendo does have some upside: it’s a land, so it can be tutored with cards like
As with most things, if you find this card fun, go ahead and pick up a copy, but don’t expect it to possess much long-run financial potential.
| Evendo, Waking Haven | ||
| Evendo, Waking Haven (Borderless) |
Wrapping Things Up
While it may be obvious that strictly worse reprints will always claim less financial value than their superior versions, the spectrum of “how much worse” creates a gray area for financial evaluation. The Planet lands on the horizon pose an interesting conundrum for collectors (and players): “How much am I willing to pay for strictly worse versions of Gaea’s Cradle and Tolarian Academy?” The hope is that this article anchors some price expectations in the long-run for cards like Evendo and Uthros and the logic behind where their utility in-game, and financially, will likely fall in the future.
As an aside, one other goofy thing that comes out of these lands is that it genuinely makes cards like
Speculate safely, and cheers!
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Corey Williams
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.