Why Players May Struggle to Break Even at $200

Magic: The Gathering is about to drop all of its Avatar products on the market for all to grab after a prerelease week from November 14 to November 21. There will be several items to look forward to, depending on a player’s preferred formats and collection habits. While Commander decks for Avatar were not made by Wizards of the Coast, Commander players will still be getting their cake and eating it too, thanks to several products that support the format. The main set is the most obvious, but Avatar will also have an Eternal-legal MTG set on the side with the Jumpstart boosters, and the Commander’s Bundle is the icing on top.

Commander decks are typically great because they allow new players to get into the format easily, and veterans can still grab a fully functional deck for cheap, sometimes including powerful and valuable reprints. Without dedicated MTG Commander decks, the Commander’s Bundle for Avatar looks like the next best thing. The problem is that, with all crossovers and special products, the game is plagued by scalpers who purchase these items in bulk and then resell them for more than their original MSRP. Right now, the Commander’s Bundle is going for an average of $185-200 on TCGPlayer, and it’s sold out on official retailer sites. However, breaking even is mostly impossible.

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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar Commander’s Bundle Value Breakdown

There are many examples of great value or the lack thereof in Magic: The Gathering‘s history of releases. The recent debacle surrounding the MTG Encyclopedia Secret Lair drop is on the great value end of the spectrum, as it packed way more than its $200 price in valuable cards. Instead, while the Commander’s Bundle for Avatar is not bad, it can be incredibly hard to get enough value out of it to justify its current price. This is because of its content, which is:

• 15 Foil basic lands (with 5 full-art Appa lands)
• 15 non-foil lands (with 5 full-art Appa lands)
• 9 Play Boosters from the Avatar set
• 1 Collector Booster from the Avatar set
• 1 click-wheel life counter
• 1 storage box
• 5 promo cards (3 pre-determined, and 2 randomized)

The MSRP for each product inside the Avatar Commander’s Bundle is as follows:

• $6.99 for each Play Booster ($62.93 total)
• $37.99 for the Collector Booster

The various MTG lands included in the bundle are not exactly valuable, and the foil full-art ones are likely to settle at less than $2 each, whereas the non-foil ones are already below $1. Likewise, the life counter and storage box are nice additions, but don’t really bear much value. What’s left are the promo cards, which are:

• Guaranteed cards:
  • Arcane Signet (around $0.40)
  • Sol Ring (around $1.20)
  • Swiftfoot Boots (around $1.20)
• Randomized cards (2 cards out of 10 per bundle):
  • Enlightened Tutor (White, around $30)
  • Flawless Maneuver (White, around $15)
  • Mystical Tutor (Blue, around $13)
  • Fierce Guardianship (Blue, around $42)
  • Entomb (Black, around $14)
  • Deadly Rollick (Black, around $17)
  • Gamble (Red, around $11)
  • Deflecting Swat (Red, around $61)
  • Worldly Tutor (Green, around $19)
  • Obscuring Haze (Green, around $6)

Why You May Not Break Even With Avatar’s Commander’s Bundle

What follows is that the average value from the randomized cards is $22.80 for a single card and $45.60 for two cards. With the original MSRP of $110, this would be a fantastic deal, but as it stands, it’s much more likely to get less value out of the bundle. Since the randomized cards can have a combined value as low as $17 or as high as $103, it boils down to what one gets. However, this is also true for the Play Boosters and the Collector Booster, which are more likely not to break even (or over) than they are to include valuable cards.

Even when leaving the value of MTG Play Boosters and the Collector Booster as is, the breakdown looks a bit bleak. It is as follows:

• $62.93 for Play Boosters
• $37.99 for the Collector Booster
• $10 for the foil lands and accessories
• $2.80 for the guaranteed promos (though the special versions may bring the total value to $10-15)
• $22.80 on average per randomized promo (though the special versions may be more expensive)
• Total value: $159.32

Is the Avatar Commander’s Bundle Worth It?

Given the current price of the Commander’s Bundle, most players will find it hard to justify spending $185-200 when the average value is much lower, and in the best-case scenario, meaning that the randomized cards are Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat, it’s still a total of around $216, which is barely more than the cost. This can happen with Secret Lairs, too, such as the new MTG Monster Hunter Secret Lair Superdrop, where the value is overall inferior.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the value is not there for the new Commander’s Bundle, as some fans may simply like the act of opening it up to collect the unique cards it offers. However, for those who seek an incredible deal, it was one only at its MSRP, rather than its current cost. The hype surrounding MTG Avatar cards like Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, Avatar Aang, and Firebending Student is very real, though, and these could very well be part of the Commander’s Bundle, with a bit of luck. And with that same bit of luck, one can get the foundations of a powerful Commander deck with cards like Enlightened Tutor, Fierce Guardianship, and Deflecting Swat.

Original Release Date

August 5, 1993

Designer

Richard Garfield

Player Count

2+

Age Recommendation

13+