Ten Cards That Gain with New Planeswalkers

Wizards recently revealed that War of the Spark will feature 36 new Planeswalker cards. Such a massive deviation from normal sets is sure to have a big impact on the market. Jamin takes a look at possible good investments with new set.

36 New Planeswalker Cards

Wow. What an announcement! Wizards of the Coast revealed that there are going to be a total of 36 new Planeswalker cards in War of the Spark.

Normally, we only get Planeswalkers at Mythic rarity but now there will probably be rare walkers (or dare I say some uncommon ones) in the newest expansion. This will have many players rejoicing as Planeswalkers are a crowd favorite: no other card type has the same level of hype behind them and while there are some critics of the card type since its introduction in Lorwyn, most players enjoy the feeling of slamming a Planeswalker onto the table.

Planeswalkers are so popular that a whole deck archetype has evolved around them called “Superfriends”. A Superfriend deck is built around the idea of playing with many Planeswalkers and while they mostly aren't very competitive, seeing your board filled with multiples is pretty cool. With War of the Spark I can only imagine Superfriend decks becoming more popular and today I want to put forward my top picks for cards that might become more relevant in the market due to the massive influx of new Planeswalkers.

Deploy the Gatewatch

Deploy the Gatewatch is among my top picks for this list. It's a Mythic from a set that wasn't opened too much and is currently priced around the 50 cent mark on average. It's also an auto-include in any Planeswalker centric deck simply because it's the equivalent of Collected Company for this specific card type. Between its low current price, a high ceiling due to being a Mythic, and it being a casual all star, this card just screams value to me.

Mox Amber

Look, it's another Mythic! Mox Amber was very hyped early on but didn't deliver up to the name's standard (yet). Depending on if there are cheap Planeswalkers in the 36 new ones, this card could be poised to make an impact in Standard or even Modern. Unfortunately this card makes for a worse investment currently because players have already caught on to this idea and the average sell price has almost doubled within the past week. Still, this card's price could explode even more if it turn out to be broken with a potential two mana Planeswalker (finger's crossed for a new Tibalt). Given that it's a Mythic, the supply is fairly limited.

The Oath Cycle

During Oath of the Gatewatch we got introduced to a cycle of Enchantments that gave benefits to Planeswalkers. Oath of Liliana and Oath of Chandra both saw a lot of play in Mardu Vehicles at the time and Oath of Nissa gave card selection to the Felidar Guardian combo deck but the casual all-stars are Oath of Teferi, Oath of Gideon, and to a degree Oath of Ajani. As rares they do not have the same financial potential of the Mythics I mentioned beforehand, but over time they should be worth picking up now given that any Planeswalker related deck wants these. While buying these, be aware that they are from different sets so supply will vary a lot.

Arena Rector

While this card is also a Mythic from a set that wasn't even in Standard, I wouldn't expect too much from this one. Given that its powerlevel is enabled by having a single powerful Planeswalker in your deck, rather than having a critical mass of them, getting 36 new ones isn't as impactful for Arena Rector as it is for other cards. Still, this is an obvious inclusion in Superfriend-style decks and I'd be surprised if it didn't rise in price after War of the Spark hits.

Call the Gatewatch & Djeru, with Eyes Open

I grouped these two cards together not only because their effects are oh so similar, but also because they're both in a similar spot. Both being in the second set of a block, both being rare, and both being not very powerful (even in Planeswalker-dedicated decks). A three mana tutor is very expensive given that you often have access to other, more efficient ones and the 4/3 body of Djeru, With Eyes Open often is not worth investing five mana into, even with the additional bonus.

If you have some of these at home, keep them and see what happens and it might be worth picking some up if you find them at reasonable prices but I wouldn't recommend investing a lot of money into these rares.

Atraxa, Praetor's Voice & The Chain Veil

Now these are some heavy hitters. Both already being priced around 10€ each without ever seeing tournament play. Atraxa, Praetor's Voice and The Chain Veil are casual mainstays. How far can cards like these rise in price? Nobody knows for sure, but cards like Purphoros, God of the Forge, Massacre Wurm, and Rhystic Study have shown how much potential casual cards have. With all of them having obvious Planeswalker synergies, they're big candidates for players to buy for their newly forged Superfriends decks.

Given that these cards will most definitely not drop in price, this seems like the best of times to grab a playset if you want to use them in future decks.

Doubling Season & Rings of Brighthearth

Doubling Season, oh Doubling Season. If ever anyone doubts that casual cards can hold a lot of value, it's here to prove them wrong. Neither of these has seen the light of competitive constructed play, yet they're still more expensive than most cards in Standard, despite the fact that Doubling Season has been reprinted twice.

Obviously both are huge players in Planeswalker decks given that one enables many Planeswalkers to ultimate the turn it comes into play and the other is basically like The Chain Veil for two mana.

Questionable however is how much this “new” demand can increase the price even further since neither Doubling Season nor Rings are primarily Planeswalker cards, they're also interesting for +1/+1 counter centric strategies, token decks, and powering up artifacts with charge counters.

Also Wizards has shown that they're willing to reprint Doubling Season and so this card is not guaranteed to stay at the price levels it's currently on. I could also see a Rings of Brighthearth reprint at some point.

So for these cards, I leave it to your judgement whether you wanna buy them right now. If you need them for a deck, chances are they'll rise in price even further, so you might be best off making that purchase now. I don't however see a huge potential for quick growth here.

Deepglow Skate

A card I didn't even know existed has been around since Commander 2016 and is included in basically all Planeswalker decks even though it only functions like a one-shot Doubling Season. Players have already noticed this card but the price hasn't yet completely taken off. For this one, I have a very hard time judging the potential as it's from a Commander product and hasn't seen regular printings yet. It also doesn't seem like it has the power level necessary to become the next Doubling Season, yet the effect is a very unique one that is very popular with casual players. Personally I wouldn't buy into the hype but if you can pick some up for a reasonable price around 4-5€ it might just pay off for you.

A Word on Standard

Most of these observations were made with casual formats in mind. Commander and kitchen table Magic have a big impact on prices but I don't want to leave out the possible newest tech in Standard.

I already covered the most important and obvious one with Mox Amber, but Dominaria featured multiple cards that work exceptionally well with Planeswalkers like the fan favorite Legendary Sorceries.

These are currently available as low as 0.02€ and might become a lot more relevant with the cards from War of the Spark. While they simply cannot become 10€ chase rares since Dominaria was one of the most popular sets in recent times and had a lot of packs opened, they could still make for a nice return.

That's almost all I have for this week. We've seen multiple casual cards rise to high price levels, so why shouldn't Planeswalker cards follow this trend? When buying cards, always keep in mind what rarity they have, which set they're from and why they should become more popular.

On a last note, I have one final card you shouldn't forget about, not because of potential financial gains but because of its deckbuilding implications for Standard with War of the Spark.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.