Commander Masters has made its debut, and as players rip open sealed product en masse, singles prices are coming down on the reprints. Today I’d like to point out the nonlegendary reprints that have caught my eye. The set is massive, with over 550 reprints (not counting cards that could be your commander), so it’s easy to overlook some pickup opportunities for your Commander decks.
Let’s jump in!
Enemy Battle Dual Lands
These multiplayer dual lands originally appeared in Commander Legends to round out the cycle started in Battlebond. These lands’ brilliant design helps color-fix Commander decks while having zero impact on other Eternal formats. They occasionally show up in Commander precon decks, but supply doesn’t seem to keep up with demand, so the reprint is very welcome. If you need some, this summer is a good time to snag them.
Other Lands
I’m a big fan of utility lands in Commander. They let you run more lands to ensure your land drops, while giving you useful mana sinks for when you have more mana than things to do. I particularly love War Room and Bonders’ Enclave for the card draw. And Mirrorpool is a personal favorite of mine; there are so many cool things it opens up for you in the mid- to late-game, and I’m excited to see more of them out there in people’s decks!
I’d like to also do a quick shout-out to the borderless treatment of Command Tower, which looks sweet!
The Medallions
The Medallion cycle debuted all the way back in Tempest, and while they have occasionally found their way into a Commander precon or on The List, the price has still been higher than the value they bring to a deck, at least in my opinion. Having them in Commander Masters has seen the price push down below $20 and in some cases closer to $10, so if you’ve been wanting to try one out in your deck, now’s a good time!
Typal Support
Fans of creature-type matters decks have gotten a boon this year, with Vanquisher’s Banner and Herald’s Horn reprinted in Tales of Middle-earth Commander and now again in Commander Masters. These cards can go into just about any typal deck, so ensuring supply can meet demand is awesome. I’m also thrilled about the Realmwalker reprint; singles from its original Kaldheim printing haven’t been unreasonable, but the price had been on the rise, so being able to pick one up for even cheaper is welcome.
Equipment
Equipment fans get some goodies in Commander Masters too! Sword of the Animist has been a popular Commander staple since Magic Origins, providing an excellent source of land ramp that’s particularly valuable to non-green decks that otherwise have to rely heavily on artifact mana rocks that are vulnerable to mass removal. It’s remained on the pricier side of Equipment despite several reprints, but it looks like Commander Masters copies are much more reasonable. Huzzah!
Hammer of Nazahn is another sweet Equipment card that’s been in need of a reprint! Sigarda’s Aid is a cool card for Equipment decks, but it’s nice to have half of its effect on an actual Equipment card, especially for non-white Equipment decks (I’m thinking about my mono-red Valduk, Keeper of the Flame deck).
I had no idea Champion’s Helm had gotten so expensive, but it’s only seen one reprinting since it originally showed up in Commander 2011, and that was in Kaladesh Inventions. Copies from the new set are much more affordable!
A special shout-out to the borderless version, especially the incredible artwork by Paolo Parente, wow!
Ohran Frostfang
While green has no shortage of raw card draw in Commander these days, I’ve always particularly loved Ohran Frostfang for how it rewards creature-based decks and attacking. Giving your attackers deathtouch makes blocking into a tough choice for your opponents, and if your attackers have trample or first strike, it becomes even more problematic. It’s also a great way to restock your hand before a battlefield sweeper destroys your army. The price had been north of $10 for a while and even topped $20 recently.
The new artwork by Ron Spears on the borderless version is super-cool, and it seems you can pick it up even cheaper than the regular version!
The Chain Veil
With Commodore Guff bringing planeswalker decks back to the Commander tables, it’s awesome that we get a reprint of The Chain Veil! This is an incredible artifact if you have a single planeswalker on the battlefield, and it gets better and better the more planeswalkers you control. Since its original printing in Magic 2015, it’s only had reprints in The List, which hasn’t helped push its price down all that much. Commander Masters copies are much more affordable.
Heroic Intervention
The gold standard in protecting your permanents from nearly all harm, Heroic Intervention has bounced around between $10-20 for a while now, despite a reprint in Forgotten Realms Commander. Showing up here and in Tales of Middle-earth Commander should make it easier to get into the hands of more players who want it.
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
The Dryad is a superb Magic card that does work in so many different decks: enchantment decks, land ramping decks, high-toughness matters decks—it even fixes your colors and ensures that all cards that care about a particular basic land type, such as Sunpetal Grove and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, are satisfied. I’m hoping this reprint will help make it more affordable.
Flawless Maneuver
It’s awesome that all of the “if you control a commander, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost” cards from Commander 2020 are getting new reprints, but most of them remain quite expensive, unfortunately. Hopefully we’ll see them reprinted more in the future to help with that. But I did want to call out Flawless Maneuver, since its Commander Masters price is quite reasonable and its effect is awesome for protecting your army from a battlefield sweeper, right up there with Heroic Intervention.
Forsaken Monument
Forsaken Monument is a slam-dunk inclusion for the Eldrazi Unbound precon deck, but any deck that runs a lot of artifact creatures and mana sources that generate colorless mana will appreciate having access to this card for a reasonable price!
Savage Beating
Instant-speed surprise—creatures you control get double strike, or untap your creatures and get another combat step; and if you pay two more mana to entwine, you get both! It has one of the most appropriate card names of all time.
I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen this card played at a Commander table. This mythic rare hasn’t seen a reprint since its original printing in Darksteel, and in recent years has been hovering around $20, which is a bit of a savage beating to your budget. Bravo to its reprint in Commander Masters to remind us of its existence and to make it much more accessible to the rest of us!
Song of the Dryads
This weird card from Commander 2014 is a potent way to neutralize someone’s oppressive commander that might otherwise be difficult to deal with. It’s also just an impressive removal spell in green that might otherwise struggle to deal with problematic creatures outside of Beast Within. Outside of The List, we haven’t had a reprint until now, and you can pick up Commander Masters copies for a bargain!
Twilight Prophet
It’s funny, Twilight Prophet is one of those cards I run across while combing through databases researching cards for new brews, and since I don’t own one, I’ll click to see the price and then move on, since it’s much more expensive than I want to pay for its effect. You have to get the city’s blessing before it does anything, and even then you’ve got to wait until your next upkeep to draw the card and potentially drain your opponents. As a Vampire and a Cleric, it has two relevant creature types, and it can do some work in lifegain-matters decks, so it’s awesome that Commander Masters copies are much more reasonable.
The Immortal Sun
Of course, if you’re not playing any planeswalkers in your Commander deck, The Immortal Sun is an incredibly nifty card to have. If you’ve got artifact synergies and are lacking in raw card draw, this can warrant a slot. That cost reduction can also be quite nifty (see the Medallions above). This hasn’t had a reprint since its debut in Rivals of Ixalan, so high-five for more copies out there in the wild!
Arachnogenesis
This Fog variant from Commander 2015 is a lot of fun! I’ve seen this played so often as just a Fog that makes Spiders, and as cool as that is, I think people forget there’s more to the card than just that. Yes, it prevents combat damage, but it prevents it from non-Spider creatures, which means you can block with those newly created 1/2 green Spider creatures and potentially kill one or more attackers without risking the lives of your little arachnids.
This has gotten quite expensive in recent years, pushing north of $25 and spiking even higher once Shelob, Child of Ungoliant was previewed and breathed new life into Spider Commander decks. Thankfully, Commander Masters copies of Arachnogenesis are much more reasonable to pick up.
A shout-out to Douglas Shuler for the art on this sweet borderless treatment!
Other Borderless Treatments
While I wouldn’t necessarily call these some of the coolest reprints, their borderless treatments are incredible. I definitely don’t need another Sol Ring, but that Mark Poole art is eye-popping! I almost never play Treasure Nabber, but if I snag a borderless copy with that Pete Venters art, I just might make an exception.
I know this article specifies “non-legendary creature” reprints, but I had to find a moment to shout-out that Slimefoot, the Stowaway profile art by Ivan Shavrin, so cool!
Oh Hey I Forgot About That!
To wrap up, I put a few reprints on a list of so obscure and rarely played that some folks might have forgotten they even exist! Prismatic Lens should sit next to Mind Stone and Thought Vessel as a two-mana mana rock.
Star of Extinction’s seven-mana cost might feel expensive these days, but being able to unleash a whopping twenty points of damage to all creatures and planeswalkers can be quite a bit more than just creature removal. Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll love it when this spell resolves, but we can dig a bit deeper. There have been cards lately that care about “excess damage” dealt to creatures, and you can’t get much more excessive than twenty points of damage to everything! Fall of Cair Andros will amass a massive Orc Army, and Toralf, God of Fury can redirect all that excess damage to opponents’ life totals.
People may remember Ezuri’s Predation, but they might not know that the Beast tokens produced by the sorcery are now Phyrexian Beast creatures rather than just Beast creatures from the original printing. It was printed with the updated wording in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, but it’s nice to have another reminder here, since Phyrexian is a relevant creature type these days.
Which reprints do you think are coolest that I may have overlooked here? Which borderless treatments are you excited to pick up?
Talk to Me
Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and start conversations about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun! You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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