3 December 2025

This Old MTG Card Just Exploded 1,983% Thanks to Avatar — And Lorwyn Might Push It Even Higher

By newsgame

Considering that Magic: The Gathering has a list of cards dating back over 30 years, it happens quite frequently that some of them feel underpowered or go overlooked for long periods, until a new combo or deck archetype comes out that makes them valuable. Whenever new sets are released, it’s rather common for older cards to spike in value and reach never-before-seen heights suddenly. Magic: The Gathering‘s Avatar set already did this for multiple cards, such as Fist of Suns surging in price a lot when Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements was revealed, as they combo in a way that makes any spell you cast free.

Powerful interactions are the name of the game in MTG, and since Avatar is a fairly sized set with an Eternal counterpart from Jumpstart Boosters, there’s a lot of potential for some incredible combos. The most expensive Avatar cards in MTG obviously include top-notch combo pieces like Badgermole Cub and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, but fans were quick to notice some sleeper hits among the many new ally-typed cards. Not only are ally decks getting a lot of love from Avatar, but Zendikar brought about a card called Sea Gate Loremaster, which spiked from $0.48 to $10, and its journey may not end here, thanks to the upcoming Lorwyn Eclipsed set.

Why 2 Magic: The Gathering Cards Are Surging in Price Because of Avatar

Magic: The Gathering players who want to build a deck with the new Avatar: The Last Airbender card may have to fork over $20 for two key cards.

MTG’s New Ally Package in Avatar is Making an Old Card Go From $0.50 to $10

Sea Gate Loremaster is a merfolk wizard ally creature that costs 4 generic and 1 Blue for a 1/3 body, which is far from good. However, it can be tapped to let you draw one card for each ally you have in play, including itself. As such, in the right deck, a single copy of Sea Gate Loremaster can draw you quite a lot of cards, and the Avatar set does make this possible with a total of 115 ally cards out of 211 total in the game. Draw engines in MTG are extremely valuable, and Sea Gate Loremaster is an interesting, gimmicky one.

Why Sea Gate Loremaster is OP in Ally Decks

This card can make for very powerful combos with some new tools from the Avatar set, such as MTG‘s Katara, the Fearless, or Great Divide Guide. The former is a legendary creature that costs Bant to cast for a 3/3, and it allows you to trigger the ability of ally cards you control twice, meaning that Sea Gate Loremaster can draw you twice the cards it normally would. Great Divide Guide is another powerful combo piece, as it allows you to tap any ally cards you have on the field to generate one mana of any color, which can make for incredible ramp in decks with low-cost creatures, and then cast Sea Gate Loremaster early or for free.

With other powerful cards like Aang, at the Crossroads, or Katara, Waterbending Master, all being ally creatures, Sea Gate Loremaster will let you have a field day in Eternal formats, and its price spike makes perfect sense. However, there’s more to it, as this old card is also a merfolk, and that’s a key tribal and creature type in Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Magic: The Gathering’s Lorwyn Eclipsed Could Make Sea Gate Loremaster Spike Even Further

The original Lorwyn block was made of four sets: Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide. These had a combined total of 56 merfolk-related cards, divided as follows:

Lorwyn – 24 total
- 20 creatures (mostly Blue, White, or Blue/White merfolk)
- 2 sorceries
- 1 land
- 1 enchantment
Morningtide – 8 total
- 8 creatures (Blue and White merfolk)
Shadowmoor – 15 total
- 15 creatures (mostly Blue and Blue/Black merfolk)
Eventide – 9 total
- 9 creatures (mostly Blue and Blue/Green merfolk)

There is also a confirmed merfolk in MTG‘s Lorwyn Eclipsed set. This is a double-sided card called Sygg, Wanderwine Wisdom // Sygg, Wanderbrine Shield. The set also has a confirmed kindred instant with the elemental type, so more merfolk cards are basically guaranteed.

Interestingly, there are 306 merfolk cards in the game, and 60 of them mention “merfolk” in their text. Several of these support merfolk creatures and strategies in general, like Aquatic Incursion, Judge of Currents, Svyelun of Sea and Sky, and Vodalian Wave-Knight. These could all be powerful in a merfolk-themed Commander deck in MTG, and in some cases, a hybrid merfolk/ally deck is also possible.

MTG’s Merfolk Cards Could Be an Ace Up Lorwyn Eclipsed’s Sleeve

In fact, there are four more cards in the game with this subtype combination. They are:

Coralhelm Guide
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
Seascape Aerialist
Umara Entangler

Of these, only Seascape Aerialist has synergies with other ally cards, giving all ally creatures you control flying until the end of the turn whenever it or another ally enters the field. Still, Pandora’s Box has been opened with Avatar featuring over 50% of the game’s entire pool of ally cards. Since Lorwyn Eclipsed is one of the most hyped MTG sets of 2026, it’s plausible that more powerful merfolk cards will be added, possibly taking Sea Gate Loremaster to a whole new level.