Checking in With Modern Masters
In recent years, Magic’s reprint equity has been strewn across various sources. The Secret Lair pipeline is the most prominent source of reprints these days, with new Lairs coming out month after month (if not more frequently), regularly injecting a fresh supply of needed reprints into the market.
Similarly, the frequently appearing specialty slot in Standard sets (
Before all of these premium printings became common, reprints largely came from Masters sets – a line of premium products, often released during the summer months, which carried higher price tags in exchange for being turbo charged with reprint value.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a Masters set (
Modern Masters Singles
Modern Masters released in June of 2013 to exuberant fanfare. It brought with it the first reprints of then-staples from across the Modern format, such as
To put it bluntly, essentially every card in Modern Masters has dropped precipitously in value since the set’s release. Dark Confidant, despite returning to Standard after decades, is now a sub-$5 card, a far cry from its peak near $90. Similarly, Tarmogoyf actively trades for below $10, despite releasing near the $150 mark.
There are, however, a few cards that have essentially remained flat (or even gained a little) since Modern Masters’ release. That isn’t to say their price has been stable since then, just that the difference between release day and today is negligible. Sword of Fire and Ice, for instance, released at around $30, peaked at nearly $95, and is now back down to $40. Far from its highs, that’s for sure, but not the precipitous drop from release day that mars the rest of the set.
Looking across the set, a unifying theme is pretty clear: Essentially everything that was a competitive constructed stapled when Modern Masters released has collapsed. Those cards that have stabilized or increased in value, meanwhile, are the cards which have found homes across Commander decks, both at higher brackets (such as
Magic has changed a lot since 2013, and it seems that everything “Modern” in Modern Masters has fallen by the wayside since then.
Modern Masters Sealed Boxes
Moving to the sealed boxes, the story changes completely. Here, the considerations for the competitive metagame disappear completely. All that matters is that the set still has some value and that supply has gone down over time due to natural attrition. Fortunately for this set’s price tag, both of those statements are true.
In the last year alone, sealed booster boxes of Modern Masters have essentially kept pace with the rest of the non-Collector sealed market, gaining 8% over the course of the year. Certainly not bad for a set that no one really talks about anymore, save for nostalgic memories of Friday Night Magic or the heyday of Modern.
All this to say, while it might not have had the dramatic price swings of other sealed products this past year, it has certainly been a stable, well-performing box.
Looking at the available market, there are currently fifteen boxes available for sale on TCGPlayer, with an average of two boxes being sold per month. That’s a pretty decent demand for such a small supply, two factors which suggest that the prices right now are pretty sensitive to individual purchases. The long-term trajectory is a stable upswing, but a volatile move could happen with only a few thousand dollars thrown into the market.
Wrap Up
As for the sealed market, prices are stable, but supply is pretty low. If you’ve got fond memories for this era and Magic and an eye towards the sealed market, keep your eye on this set. You never know when it might make a movement.
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Harvey McGuinness
Harvey McGuinness is a student at Johns Hopkins University who has been playing Magic since the release of Return to Ravnica. After spending a few years in the Legacy arena bouncing between Miracles and other blue-white control shells, he now spends his time enjoying Magic through CEDH games and understanding the finance perspective. He also writes for the Commander's Herald.