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What is the Most Expensive Card in Ultimate Masters? - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

1/28/2019

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
Picture
Ultimate Masters is probably the most valuable reprint set ever printed for Magic: the Gathering. In addition to reprinting classic cards that are often seen in competitive play, Ultimate Masters also featured a set of box toppers, which are quite valuable. So, when asking what is the most expensive card in Ultimate Masters, there are three things to consider: the most expensive non-foil, the most expensive foil, and the most expensive box topper.

What is the Most Expensive Non-Foil Card in Ultimate Masters?

In September 2019, Liliana of the Veil was the most expensive non-foil card in Ultimate Masters. As a card that sees plenty of play in the Modern format, it should come as little surprise that this mythic rare was commanding a price tag of around $80 USD, with a market price around $74. The powerful three-mana planeswalker was followed by other powerful Modern cards: Cavern of Souls, Karn Liberated, Snapcaster Mage, Tarmogoyf, and Bitterblossom.


What is the Most Expensive Foil Card in Ultimate Masters?

The Ultimate Masters set is full of pricey foils, despite one foil coming in every pack. The most expensive foil cards in the Ultimate Masters set are Liliana of the Veil and Cavern of Souls, which are available for as low as $110 on TCGPlayer as of September 2019. Liliana is followed by Karn Liberated, Demonic Tutor, Snapcaster Mage, and Karn Liberated all in the $125 range. On TCGPlayer, you can find these foils for a bit less money.


What is the Most Expensive Box Topper Card in Ultimate Masters?

The Ultimate Masters Box Toppers are highly collectible, highly sought-after extended art versions of many of the best cards in the set. The most expensive Box Topper that’s sold on eBay by the end of January 2019 was a Dark Depths graded by Beckett as a Gem Mint BGS 9.5. It sold for $1275 on January 3rd, 2019. A BGS 9.5 Tarmogoyf and BGS 9.5 Liliana of the Veil each sold for $660 each a short time later.

The most expensive Box Topper that wasn’t graded that sold on eBay was a Tarmogoyf for around $500 on November 12, 2018. On TCGPlayer, the most expensive Box Topper was Liliana of the Veil with a market price of $268. Over time, it’s likely many of these Box Toppers will bought up by collectors for grading purposes. They will likely be some of the best Magic the Gathering investments you can make.

Ultimate Masters is a great set, and even if you can’t get ahold of any of the Box Toppers, this set is one of the best to collect cards from if you’re looking to build a valuable Magic the Gathering collection.

Updated 9/1/2019

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Foil - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Ultimate Masters Card Review

11/25/2018

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
Picture
Foil is what you may call a “poor man’s” Force of Will. Originally printed in Magic the Gathering’s Prophecy set, Foil has been played in EDH for quite some time. It was reprinted with the same artwork with a modern border in Duel Decks: Elspeth VS Tezzeret - to this day probably my favorite of the Duel Decks and not just because of Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Foil also was selected for reprint in Ultimate Masters in 2018. Not only did it gain new artwork and the chance to get a far less expensive copy of Foil in foil (that’s fun to say), but Foil also gets a rarity downshift. Always printed at uncommon before, Foil has been shifted to common rarity for Ultimate Masters.

Why is Foil at Common a Big Deal? Foil in Pauper

Rarity downshifts are common in Masters reprint sets. But Foil, in particular, is a card that’s primed to impact the Pauper format, a format that uses only cards printed at common. Originally a massively popular format on Magic the Gathering: Online, Pauper is now extremely popular and well supported by local game stores in Paper Magic.

What makes Foil so good? If you look at Foil, it doesn’t really look like a tremendously competitive card. It’s a four mana Counterspell essentially. In Pauper, you already have good old Counterspell, which is only two mana. But, Foil has an alternate casting cost. You don’t have to pay any mana if you discard an Island and another card from your hand.

This alternate casting cost makes Foil very similar to the Legacy staple, Force of Will. That counterspell costs five mana, but if you exile a Blue card from your hand and pay 2 life, you can cast it for free. While that’s definitely a minus one as far as card advantage is concerned, you’re typically going to be countering something significant when you cast it.

While Foil is essentially a minus two in card advantage if you cast it for free, four mana to counter a spell isn’t really that terrible, especially in the later game. Also, pitching an Island and any card from your hand is nowhere as bad as exiling a card that has to be Blue (an Island doesn’t count in that case). Because the cards go to the graveyard, they can be brought back somehow later.

Is Foil Going to See Competitive Pauper Play?

While there are many counterspells in Pauper, having essentially a common version of Force of Will is better than it looks on paper. Also keep in mind that cards with the Madness mechanic, which gives cards an alternate casting cost when they’re discarded, is present in Pauper.

But, you don’t need to have a deck that revolves around Madness for Foil to be good. Here’s an Izzet Blitz Pauper deck that features two copies of Foil.


Lands (17)
3 Evolving Wilds
9 Island
5 Mountain

Spells (31)
3 Apostle's Blessing
1 Brainstorm
1 Daze
1 Distortion Strike
2 Foil
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Gush
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mutagenic Growth
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
3 Temur Battle Rage

Creatures (12)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivix Cyclops

Sideboard (15)
2 Dispel
2 Electrickery
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Hydroblast
3 Pyroblast
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stormbound Geist


The entire point of an Izzet Blitz Pauper deck is to build up your Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops to deal massive amounts of damage. Foil helps get you there by giving you a “free” counterspell. While discarding an Island and another card can be a steep cost, it’s not a steep cost if you’re going to win the game because of what you counter.

There’s also this interesting U/B Reanimator Control Pauper deck that runs a full four copies of Foil in it.


Lands (14)
8 Island
2 Swamp
3 Evolving Wilds
1 Ash Barrens

Spells (34)
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
3 Dragon Wings
4 Duress
4 Exhume
4 Foil
4 Lotus Petal
2 Muddle the Mixture
4 Preordain
1 Vampiric Link

Creatures (12)
4 Striped Riverwinder
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Gurmag Angler


In a deck like this one, you don’t care if you’re discarding a card for Foil. You want Striper Riverwinder or Gurmag Angler in the graveyard anyway to Exhume. Foil is actually a better card in this particular kind of deck than Force of Will, since you’d have to put one of your Striper Riverwinders or other Blue cards in exile instead of in the grave. You can also discard Gurmag Angler, too, or anything else for that matter.


Foil in EDH / Commander

While not exactly a staple in the EDH format, Foil is a useful counterspell that sees a fair amount of play in several Commander decks. Talrand, Sky Summoner, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, and Baral, Chief of Compliance are far and away the most common Commanders that utilize Foil as part of their countermagic suite. You will have plenty of Islands to pitch in these sorts of decks.


While Foil had a price over $1 before its reprinting, that was mainly due to its relative rarity being printed in an older set. Duel Deck copies aren’t all that plentiful. But, being reprinted at common makes it far more accessible, although the overall demand from the Pauper community will likely keep this one of the more valuable commons in Ultimate Masters. Also, you won’t have to pay $30 for a foil copy of Foil anymore, which is a plus.

How would you play Foil in your deck?


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