I know it's not officially Monday anymore according to HIVE time, but it's still Monday evening here! Time to open one of those Set Booster packs that has been teasing me for a few days. These contain a special art card, fewer common-rarity cards, and up to four rare and mythic rare cards. I got a rare land and a foil rare legendary creature showcase card. More on that later.
The art cards don't seem to have much of a collector market, but they do look nice, and I can see using them as tokens. What value do you see in these? Are they just a gimmick, or collector gold down the road?
This pack also included a 2/2 Phyrexian token on the advertisement insert. The basic land was a Plains. There were four other common-rarity cards:
Viashino Branchrider: CMC 1 (R) for a 1/1 with haste is decent value already, but it can also get boosted by +2/+0 for 3 (2R), and it has a kicker of 3 (2G) to enter as a 3/3. The abilities are a bit pricy, but the result still has value, I think.
Talas Lookout: I covered it last time.
Argivian Phalanx: 4/4 for CMC 6 (5W) looks bad on the surface, but this costs 1 generic mana less for each other creature you control, so it's a solid value to cast a 4/4 for as little as just one white mana. I quite like this one. And it has vigilance to boot.
Colossal Growth: Green tends to have a lot of instants that make creatures bigger, but this also has a kicker to add size, trample, and haste for just an extra red mana. Nice!
These commons don't disappoint for playability. Let's move up the rarity scale though.
Hurler Cyclops: CMC 5 (3RR) for a 5/4 isn't the best value, but for 1 generic mana, he can toss other creatures to damage any target, including players and planeswalkers. Not too bad after all.
Balduvian Atrocity: CMC 3 (2B) for a 2/3 is under-powered, but that kicker to retrieve a battle buddy from the graveyard is neat.
Cut Down: an odd black murder card tailor-made specifically to eliminates mall stuff. It's cheap, but I'm not convinced it's good.
Jodah's Codex: Better with more colors. Great for 5-color. Bad for mono-color. Mediocre at 3 colors.
Sulfurous Springs: the first rare card, a classic dial land that taps for colorless, and taps for either red or black if you take 1 damage. Good in EDH, situational in Standard.Value is around $2.
Jhoira, Ageless Innovator: the other rare, a very nice foil showcase card currently selling for only around $1, but a great commander option for EDH Izzet artifact decks, and maybe just the card I need for a deck I've been failing to make function right for some time now.
Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator: another showcase, although only an Uncommon rarity option. It's weird. I like the cycling option. I'm less convinced about the value of that sacrifice, but it's a nice trick to have up your sleeve, too. What do you think?
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