Commander and Modern staples at affordable prices.
In recent years, various Magic: The Gathering Standard expansions have incorporated bonus sheets to aid the Limited format, but these also serve as an excellent opportunity to snap up once-expensive cards at a much more affordable rate. Take The Brothers’ War: Retro Artifacts, where cards such as Mox Amber, Helm of the Host, and Mishra’s Bauble saw a decrease in value, meaning players can acquire accessible copies at a lower price for Modern and Commander applications.
Market Price: $42.23
Market Price: $13.68
The same is also true for March of the Machines: Multiverse Legends, which was a bonus sheet incorporating some of Magic’s most iconic Legendary characters including Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice who both saw a price dip during March of the Machine’s release. If you are indifferent to card aesthetics, these bonus sheet cards are ideal to fill out your Modern or Commander collection while saving a few dollars for good measure.
Market Price: $12.47
Market Price: $41.90
With Wilds of Eldraine, Enchanting Tales is the bonus sheet for the recent Standard release, which highlights some of the notable Enchantment cards throughout Magic’s history. Due to the ample circulation of Wilds of Eldraine since the September 8 release, many Enchanting Tales cards are much more affordable than their previously printed counterparts. Even though Enchanting Tales cards such as Parallel Lives and Smothering Tithe are still somewhat pricey, these are some of the most affordable printings of the card you can buy right now.
As it’s impossible to keep up with every Magic release due to the amount of product, card variations, and foil treatments in every release, let’s look at some of the Enchanting Tales cards you should absolutely consider acquiring if you play Commander and Modern.
Polluted Bonds
Polluted Bonds
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
A once-incredibly expensive card due to a single printing in Shadowmoor, Polluted Bonds appears in the Enchanting Tales, and since Wilds of Eldraine’s release, it has massively crashed the value of this Enchantment. A popular card in Commander, Polluted Bonds punishes opponents for cheating ahead on Lands, or just wanting to simply play a Land for the turn. If there’s one thing the color Black is remarkably good at achieving in Commander, which is passively whittling life totals and generating massive swings in the Black player’s favor.
For Polluted Bonds, the card is impressively good in any dedicated Mono-Black shell led by Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Tergrid, God of Fright, or Syr Konrad, the Grim. And now, with a reprint in Enchanting Tales, the card is now only a couple of bucks compared to the $20-30 before the reprint. If you enjoy playing Mono-Black or Group Slug-style Commander strategies, then Polluted Bonds is an excellent card to acquire and stockpile.
Hardened Scales
Hardened Scales
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
A big roleplayer in Modern’s Hardened Scales, the namesake card also appears in the Enchanting Tales, even though there’s been a smattering of reprints in Double Masters 2022, Commander 2016, and Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000. Hardened Scales is a fantastic card for any strategy that cares about generating a bunch of counters on creatures such as Hangarback Walker, Walking Ballista, and Arcbound Ravager.
Market Price: $17.38
Market Price: $13.52
Granted, Hardened Scales is more of a constructed card since the namesake strategy is seeing a resurgence in Modern due to the printing of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, which also appears in Wilds of Eldraine. However, any Counter-focused Commander strategy will want this Enchantment, such as Ezuri, Claw of Progress and even Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice if you are choosing a different route than a traditional Superfriends build. Either way, Hardened Scales is a fantastic card, and you can snap up a playset for less than $5 at the time of publication, which to me, is a solid deal.
Blind Obedience
Blind Obedience
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
Another fantastic Enchantment that sees play in a variety of Group Slug, Stax, and Death & Taxes-style strategies in Commander is Blind Obedience, a card that was first printed in Gatecrash and only seen a smattering of Commander reprints since. With Enchanting Tales, Blind Obedience is part of this impressive series and is currently coming in at just over two dollars at the time of publication, and it seems that price is slowly climbing due to evergreen demand for the card. Commanders such as Eriette of the Charmed Apple, Karlov of the Ghost Council, and Teysa Karlov are some of the best Commanders to incorporate Blind Obedience since the Extort ability can slowly dwindle the opponent’s life total throughout a Commander game.
Market Price: $18.12
While it is unlikely this printing of Blind Obedience will creep back up to Gatecrash prices before Wilds of Eldraine’s release, foil copies of the Enchanting Tales printing are far cheaper than their Gatecrash counterparts. So, if you are in the market for affordable Commander foils, Blind Obedience from the Enchanting Tales is a reasonable place to start.
Blood Moon
Blood Moon
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
A staple in Modern and Legacy is Blood Moon, a card that always could do with more reprints regardless of how you feel about your non-Basics turning into Mountains. Sometimes, Blood Moon appears in Commander in a Mono-Red strategy led by Solphim, Mayhem Dominus, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, or even Imodane, the Pyrohammer from Wilds of Eldraine as there’s little downside considering these Commander builds are running mostly Basic Mountains anyway.
Modern
Rakdos Evoke
Market Price:$1,276.65
Maindeck, 60 cards
Sortsort deckCreature (21)
- 4Dauthi Voidwalker
- 4Fury
- 4Grief
- 1Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
- 4Orcish Bowmasters
- 4Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Sorcery (4)
- 4Thoughtseize
Instant (11)
- 2Lightning Bolt
- 4Not Dead After All
- 3Terminate
- 2Undying Evil
Enchantment (4)
- 4Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Land (20)
- 3Blackcleave Cliffs
- 4Blood Crypt
- 2Bloodstained Mire
- 2Marsh Flats
- 1Mount Doom
- 2Polluted Delta
- 3Swamp
- 1Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
- 2Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard (15)
- 2Blood Moon
- 3Chalice of the Void
- 2Engineered Explosives
- 2Fatal Push
- 1Kolaghan’s Command
- 3Leyline of the Void
- 2Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
- 0n/a
If you play a bunch of Modern, snapping up copies of Blood Moon from the Enchanting Tales is a great way to fill out your collection since Rakdos Evoke — the best deck in Modern right now — utilizes the Enchantment to fantastic success. There’s also some minor usage of Blood Moon in Modern’s Izzet Murktide, and there isn’t any harm in snapping up copies since this printing is the cheapest at the time of publication. Blood Moon is so unique in what it does, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Enchanting Tales copies increase in value over time.
Leyline of the Void
Leyline of the Void
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
Another Modern staple that appears in the Enchanting Tales is Leyline of the Void, a card that is historically a fantastic answer for any Graveyard-focused strategy as it forces the opponent to exile the card that enters the graveyard instead. Another desirable aspect of the Enchantment is that if the card is in your opening hand, you can put the card into play before the game has even begun. Before Wilds of Eldraine’s release, Guildpact and even Core 2020 printings were reasonably pricey due to needing a playset for various Modern sideboards. You often ran a set of Leyline of the Void to improve your chances of drawing the card in your opening hand, thus putting the card into play for free.
With the Enchanting Tales reprint, you can now buy a set of Leyline of the Void for around $8, which is a really good price considering how much the card sees play in Modern and Legacy. Another thing to note is that Leyline of Sanctity and Rest in Peace are also affordable cards to pick up from Enchanting Tales if you play Modern. While these are more fringe cards compared to Leyline of the Void, these are the kinds of purchases worth making to fill out an order, even perhaps trying to snag free delivery in the process.
Fiery Emancipation
Fiery Emancipation
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
A once-Mythic Rare that commanded incredible value in Core Set 2020 is Fiery Empancipation, which also is part of the Enchanting Tales. Since the release, the card has crashed in value and it’s becoming an excellent budget card to snap up for Commander usage. Fiery Emancipation cares about tripling damage output and wants a variety of aggression and burn to ensure you can sweep opponents at the Commander table with little effort. Commanders such as Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, Imodane, the Pyrohammer, and Toralf, God of Fury are ideal alongside the Enchantment, as these Red Commanders are some of the most aggressive Legends around. Mono-Red Burn (or Aggro) is traditionally some of the more budget-minded Commander archetypes you can build, and now with Fiery Emancipation being under $4, you can make something genuinely strong without needing to break the bank.
Kindred Discovery
Kindred Discovery
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
A card that saw a much-needed reprint in Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate is Kindred Discovery a card that cares deeply about Typal Commanders such as Sliver Gravemother, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, and even more recently Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor from Commander: Wilds of Eldraine. Kindred Discovery is a simple yet elegant design where if a creature type of the chosen type enters the battlefield or attacks, you draw a card. In a Commander environment full of Slivers, Zombies, Dragons, and Faeries, Kindred Discovery is a must-have as it supports the typal game plan rather effectively.
Another card worth noting is Shared Animosity, which is another excellent yet affordable option to snap up from the Enchanting Tales bonus sheet. Even though Shared Animosity did see a reprint in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth recently, sometimes players prefer the in-Magic variants, where the card is a must-have for any Typal Commander strategy that includes Red. At the time of publication, the Enchanting Tales printing of Kindred Discovery is the most affordable copy right now, meaning this is a decent time to pick up a copy or two if you are looking to play a Typal Commander soon.
Primal Vigor
Primal Vigor
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
Lastly, the best Enchanting Tales card you can pick up right now for Commander is Primal Vigor, a card that only has a handful of printings in Secret Lair, The List, and Commander 2013. However, this Enchanting Tales printing is the first genuine and accessible printing since Commander 2013, and as a result, the price of the popular Green Enchantment has crashed into a more affordable range. What makes Primal Vigor such a compelling option in Commander is how you can double up on counters and tokens but also gift this effect to your opponents also. Usually, you’re building your Commander strategy to accommodate Primal Vigor best, so whatever the opponents receive from the Enchantment is minimal in comparison to your efforts.
Market Price: $29.32
Market Price: $53.06
Market Price: $41.90
Doubling Season and Parallel Lives also appear in the Enchanting Tales which you often see alongside Primal Vigor at a Commander table. While the price of Doubling Season remains high despite the recent reprint in Commander Masters, I do recommend picking up copies of Parallel Lives if you have the budget for it. It’s one of those cards that will just slowly climb in value due to the evergreen demand in Commander, and it’s a really unique effect in Green. While I don’t often suggest snapping up pricer cards as that defeats the point of writing about budget Magic, I do think you will save some money with Parallel Lives in the long run and the card mileage is absolutely there.