Double Masters 2022 is already out, and there's a large number of high-value cards for Magic: The Gathering collectors, box openers, and limited players alike. Despite not many Pioneer and Modern staples making it into the set, there’s plenty of older and newer Commander and 60-card staples in Double Masters 2022 that are definitely worth picking up despite their still heavy price tag. Whether picking up the singles or opening booster packs, it can be useful to know which cards have monetary value outside their gameplay effects.
When evaluating reprints, it’s most important to look at the non-foil and non-alternate versions of the cards to see how the price has dropped since the announcement of the set. Many of the borderless cards are much more expensive, but many players simply looking for an inexpensive copy are most likely only interested in the main set. Double Masters has done a fairly good job at making Magic reprint cards like Imperial Seal less expensive, but hasn’t completely dropped the price of many of these cards.
Double Masters 2022 is in an awkward spot of being great for high-value reprints while also being the most expensive booster packs released in Magic’s history. The cards reprinted will definitely decrease in price, but the supply will be restricted by the amount of players who opened them in booster packs. Still, if there was any time to pick up copies of these cards for deckbuilding, it would be on release.
Cavern Of Souls Is A Double Masters Magic Reprint Worth Picking Up
Of all the most valuable reprints, there is at least one that still sees fringe play in Modern and Legacy. Cavern of Souls supports plenty of tribal-based decks in 60-card formats like Eldrazi, Humans, and Merfolk and is a mainstay in tribal-based 100-card MTG Commander decks. The land has two primary uses - color fixing for tribes whose most powerful members are spread across the color pie and making spells uncounterable in unfavorable control matchups. It’s versatile and fits in any tribal deck, only taking up a single land slot.
Cavern of Souls sits at around 64 dollars according to TCGPlayer in its reprinted state, down from a peak of 90 dollars. It may not be playable in every Commander deck, nor does it add much to a deck in a format with plenty of five-color lands and less counterspells. However, Cavern of Souls is a great reprint in case one of the popular tribal strategies picks up in Modern, as when it’s playable it gets very expensive.
Wrenn & Six Is A Modern Horizons Card With Heavy Tournament Play
The Modern Horizons series of cards have been both a blessing and a curse in many ways. While the Modern MTG format provides players lots of possibilities, the influx of powerful cards from the Horizons sets has caused the format to be upended, making many classic decks unplayable without monetary upgrades. To this point, the second most valuable reprint in Double Masters is Wrenn and Six. The two mana planeswalker immediately saw play in Jund and stayed popular in midrange decks like Elementals looking to gain incremental card advantage.
With only one printing in Modern Horizons, Wrenn and Six has risen in price along with its playability. Before its reprint announcement, the card was well above 100 dollars, but has since dropped and will likely go for 65 dollars. Keeping Modern Horizons cards inexpensive is going to be hard given the wide amount of play that they see and the lack of places to reprint them, so of the sets released this year, Double Masters 2022 may be the only way to grab a copy of Wrenn and Six for a while.
Imperial Seal Is A Reprint Of A Rare Magic The Gathering Card
Imperial Seal is an interesting case - printed once in Portal Three Kingdoms in 1999, this card was a unique effect mostly limited to Asia and New Zealand. The cards in Portal Three Kingdoms were interestingly themed after Chinese history, but it did make reprinting the card a hassle in future sets. Fortunately, with Imperial Recruiter, Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Three Visits, and Burning of Xinye, these cards are finally getting reprinted and bringing the cost down.
The only other version of Imperial Seal is a promotional card much like MTG Secret Lair promos given to judges, meaning that regular copies have risen in price. There are better search-style effects like Vampiric Tutor, but Imperial Seal gives Commander decks more consistency. Before a reprint, the Judge Promo card was worth an incredible 650 dollars, but the Double Masters reprint has thankfully been priced at 115 dollars per copy.
Mana Vault Is A Powerful & Controversial Magic Card
fortnite cards series 2 value
Cards like Mana Crypt and Mana Vault can be controversial in Commander – the amount of mana spent versus the amount of mana received is high enough to be an include in any deck, but the real world price is prohibitive to many players. Mana Crypt has seen a few high-value reprints in Eternal Masters, Kaladesh Masterpieces, and Mystery Boosters, but Mana Vault has needed to be reprinted in Double Masters and still sat at nearly 100 dollars before the reprint.
Fortunately, the reprint has nearly halved that price sitting at around 5o dollars. Mana Vault’s overwhelming power contributes to it not getting reprinted that often, so every opportunity to obtain a copy is appreciated. Mana Vault is still an expensive card, but it should be available to more players that want to pick one up.
Dockside Extortionist Is A Recent Card Powerful In Commander
Dockside Extortionist seems like a fine enough card - in commander, players tend to play plenty of mana-ramp spells and artifacts, so this somewhat under-statted two mana creature is there to even the playing field for the person who casts it. However, the way that Dockside Extortionist plays out in a typical game is that it generates twenty or more mana for two mana as early as turn six or seven. Couple that with effects that bring it back from the graveyard and Dockside Extortionist becomes one of the most powerful and swingy effects in red-based Commander decks like Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald.
Unfortunately, the card was only printed in one Commander deck in 2019 and hasn’t seen a reprint since. The price of Dockside Extortionist ballooned to near 80 dollars, but the Double Masters reprint has cut that price to around 50 dollars. The card was subject to low supply and the Double Masters version should be much less expensive on release.
Mana Drain, once an 150 dollar card in its own right, is now 35 dollars with two reprints. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has seen three reprints now and has finally dropped from a height of 70 dollars to below $30. Reprint sets do work, but either Wizards of the Coast needs to be consistent and offer more tournament and casual staples or print reprint sets more often, perhaps like the Mystical Archive from Strixhaven. If anything, Double Masters 2022 and reprint sets show that cards need multiple Magic reprints over a short period of time to stay inexpensive. Borderless and etched foil variants are important as well, but it would be better if regular copies of sought-after cards were available to most every player.
Next: Yu-Gi-Oh!, MTG, Or Pokémon: Which Cards Are Worth More Money
Source: TCGPlayer (2, 3, 4, 5)