Underpriced Lorwyn Eclipsed Cards for Commander
History, Restapled: Lorwyn-ing Record
Welcome back for another History, Restapled, a Commander-focused column that attempts to validate a newer card’s status as a staple by looking at how cards that are similar, synergistic, or competing have fared in the past financially.
Here are some of the most staple-worthy cards to check out.
Emptiness - $4
Catharsis - $1.50
When the original cycle of five evoke Elemental creatures was released in
Similarly, the new evoke Elementals from Lorwyn Eclipsed includes two, Emptiness and Catharsis, that are being overshadowed by
The priciest, Wistfulness, is sitting at $22, only a fraction of the $50 that Solitude, the best of the Modern Horizons 2 bunch, was priced at in its heyday. After all, these evoke Elementals require a mana payment to produce an effect. But at $4 and $1.50, respectively, Emptiness and Catharsis, are a steal, sure to level up whichever Commander deck wants to run them.
Grab them before enough players catch on.
STATUS: Forthcoming staples
| Emptiness | ||
| Emptiness (Borderless) | ||
| Catharsis | ||
| Catharsis (Borderless) |
Mutable Explorer - $2
Wizards of the Coast went ahead and printed its best typal ramp source yet in Mutable Explorer. The card represents a significant upgrade to
I’d roughly equate this card to
STATUS: Typal staple
| Mutable Explorer | ||
| Mutable Explorer (Showcase) |
Winnowing - $0.50
This new white board wipe is not to be slept on. When we’re running a typal strategy, we can tap one of our creatures to save the vast majority of them from death. For our opponents, they’ll likely have at least one creature that stands out from the others, typal-ly. Perhaps a token gifted from another player, or a mana dork. This sets the stage for a massive one-sided board wipe that gets around indestructible and can be cast for zero mana using convoke.
While not a perfect analogy, take a look at
Grab some copies of Winnowing and get ready for a price spike the next time a strong typal precon arrives.
STATUS: Typal removal staple
| Winnowing | ||
| Winnowing (Showcase) |
Bristlebane Battler - $0.50
Finally,
This creature’s potential impact is a bit lower than what we’d expect from a gangbusters cheap creature from a new set. But this one’s a bit underrated. Battler is just enough of an imposing force to keep opponents’ early attackers at bay, and its ward cost is innocuous enough to seem irrelevant but substantial enough to force opponents to think on it. Plus, green decks naturally synergize with +1/+1 counters, so removing the -1/-1 counters from Battler should be a pretty easy feat. Keep an eye on this one as a sleeper pick in lower brackets.
STATUS: One-to-watch at lower power
| Bristlebane Battler | ||
| Bristlebane Battler (Showcase) |
Staring Directly Into the Eclipse
Which cards from
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Steve Heisler
Steve Heisler is a writer and pop culture journalist covering comedy, games, television, film and the tech industry. His work has been published in Rolling Stone, GQ, Variety, The AV Club, Fast Company and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began collecting Magic cards during Fourth Edition and plays Commander and Modern primarily. He also enjoys tennis, the Dark Souls family of video games and supporting live comedy. He lives in Chicago with his cat, Rosie.