Wizards of the Coast has increasingly catered to this kind of consumer, releasing branded Secret Lair sets with limited print runs and art by people like Bob Ross. Card prices are watched like stocks and people pay big money for sealed boxes of boosters from 20 year old sets. Casual play can be less stressful and high-stakes, but there was always a reason to buy new cards and spend money.Īs Magic has grown in popularity and the number of out of print cards has grown, some rich collectors have turned the cards into a kind of commodities market. Magic was always an expensive hobby, with tournament play requiring players to buy booster packs roughly every three months to keep their decks up to date with the game’s legal regulations. There’s been a growing divide in the Magic: The Gathering community between the casual players and the collectors. Customers will be buying packs in sets of four for $999, so they’re paying $250 for a booster pack they can only ever display and never play with. Again, these cards can’t be used in tournament play and are only meant to be a collector’s item. This new limited edition Black Lotus won’t likely reach those lofty pricing heights. A Black Lotus sold at auction in 2021 for $511,000

These were some of the earliest cards to be restricted from tournament play because they were overpowered they were eventually discontinued. The set includes reprints of cards, some of which haven’t been reprinted in decades, including the Power Nine, nine powerful cards from the early sets that include the iconic Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall. Magic publisher Wizards of the Coast hasn’t said how big that run will be, just that it’s limited and that card shops will receive a limited supply with the bulk of the cards being sold online. They’re not tournament legal and have different backing than the original cards. These cards are purely collector’s items.

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