Wizards Offers Sneak Peek at Commander’s Arsenal
WotC announced at San Diego Comic Con that they would be releasing Commander products every year now, and that we’d have a November release this year. They’ve lifted the lid on that November product, called Commander’s Arsenal.
First, if you need a quick primer on the Commander rules, head over to the official unofficial site. In a nutshell, it’s a 100-card singleton format where one card is a legendary creature that can be cast at any time, and it’s designed for multiplayer.
Now then, Commander’s Arsenal. Looks like no new cards will be in this (not a surprise), but instead we’ll get some reprints of key Commander cards that have been hard to find. It’s obviously a good idea to make a casual format more accessible. That’s a foil Sylvan Library showing in the image above. Cube owners like me will be ecstatic for that card alone.
It also looks like Wizards really thinks people are into these oversize cards. I don’t get it. Totally useless. Anyway, looks like we’re getting oversized foils of older Legends, like Azusa, Lost but Seeking there. It’s probably safe to assume there is a normal-sized version of Azusa in those little packs of cards we can’t see. I’m glad more people can build decks with Azusa! I’m also glad I traded away my foil Azusa last week, since a reprint means her value might come down.
Or maybe not. The retail on this thing is 75 clams. I get that there’s a lot of cool stuff in here (a bunch of foil Ultra-Pro sleeves, enough for an entire Commander deck, which is sweet, plus some +1 or -1 counters and that crazy life counter thing), but maybe they could have left out the goofy jumbo cards and kept the MSRP on the Arsenal in the range of a brand new AAA console game? I mean, ouch.
From the image over on the Commander site, we can also see a reprint of Mimeoplasm will be in this set. So I’m guessing the cards we haven’t seen yet will be an array of legendary creatures that are otherwise not easily obtainable. It would be cool to see some of the other crazy expensive Commander/Planechase cards get reprinted too, like Flusterstorm and Scavenging Ooze, or even Baleful Strix.
August 10th, 2012 6:27 PM
Ok, I’m not sure what’s in it, but that picture does not make me want to spend $75. I really hate the oversize cards, I don’t really care about the foil collecting side of the game, and I’m not an obsessive sleeve user. I do really really want that life counter thing. Not $75 worth of want, but I want it. If I’m going to pay $75 I want more mass in a product. Heck, it could be reprints of the Power Nine and I’d have a hard time justifying it to myself.
August 11th, 2012 9:31 AM
$75? Pretty cool that it is all gold plated. It is gold plated, right?
August 11th, 2012 6:51 PM
Another way to look at it:
Foil Azusa currently goes for $35
Black border Sylvan Library goes for $40 (foil doesn’t even exist).
So if you’re the type of player who cares about special versions of cards (and there are plenty of them, mostly Cubers and Commander players), then this set is worth it just for those two cards alone.
August 11th, 2012 7:39 PM
Right, but what kind of an effect will this set have on the value of those cards? I’m obviously not someone who follows the card markets, but I would assume that selling valuable cards in non-randomized sets would decrease their value.
August 12th, 2012 10:23 AM
That’s a tough question. Obviously it increases the overall supply of the card, but then again, the new copies are only available by buying a $75 set. If the other cards in the set are so desirable that this thing sells through the roof, then people will put the cards they didn’t want on ebay or whatever, so the value will come down a bit.
But to some extent that $75 price tag puts a floor on how low the individual card prices can come down. In fact, Wizards is no doubt well aware of the hazards of pissing off collectors by devaluing their cards, which may be part of the reason for the $75 price tag.
But then, that version of Sylvan Library is completely unique. I feel fairly confident that it will trade in the $20 – $30 range.