Shadowmoor Remastered when?
Old sets are filled with hidden gems. One such set is Shadowmoor – I was very legitimately surprised when looking through this set and its expensive cards, as there are so many popular or commonly-played cards from Shadowmoor that have never been reprinted and so command a much higher price than they perhaps should. If you’ve got old bulk from around 2008, it’s well worth digging it out to see what might be lurking therein, as there are some real diamonds in the rough. Let’s get into the most expensive cards from Shadowmoor!
10. Reflecting Pool
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $8.74
Reflecting Pool is an odd land in that it doesn’t really “fix” your mana in the same way other color-fixing lands might. It only provides you with mana that you already have access to, which doesn’t help you cast your cards if you’re already color-screwed. Where it really does help, however, is in four and five-color decks: once they play their Command Tower or Mana Confluence, Reflecting Pool becomes another utopia land. That’s really important in decks that are filled with cards that have demanding color requirements: The Ur-Dragon, Jodah, the Unifier, etc. I’m surprised to see this version of Reflecting Pool at $10, given the recent reprint (and the fact that this version was also a reprint itself), but the price is trending down steadily: back in mid-2021, this was a $40 card.
9. Plague of Vermin
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $11.40
Big, splashy card, weird or unique effect, never been reprinted? Plague of Vermin is the exact sort of card you’d expect to have a reasonably significant price tag, and the $11.50 asking price reflects that. After a massive spike in early 2020, Plague of Vermin’s price has continued to creep up, and without a reprint that isn’t about to change. Rat tribal decks like Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm or Marrow-Gnawer want this card, it’s incredible in Ayara, First of Locthwain decks. I suspect that the moment it is reprinted the price will tank, and given the name “Plague of Vermin” is flavour-agnostic and that it doesn’t contain any set-based mechanics in its rules, this is the sort of card that could very, very easily crop up in any kind of future product offering. Buy with caution.
8. Wound Reflection
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $12.69
In any nasty EDH deck looking to really come out swinging for opposing life totals – Mogis, God of Slaughter, Yurlok of Scorch Thrash, other group slug decks like this – Wound Reflection does a ton of work. A Double Masters reprint has kept its price in check, but it remains a very popular support piece for all kinds of punishing EDH lists, and has even risen from $9 to its current price, just under $13, within the last 12 months. Given its powerful and relatively unique effect, this is a card that will always have a good amount of demand behind it, and so if supply doesn’t keep up with that demand, the price will only rise and rise.
7. Mana Reflection
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $13.12
Another remember of the “Reflection” cycle in Shadowmoor (the other three being Boon Reflection, Rage Reflection and Thought Reflection, all pretty good cards), Mana Reflection is a personal Heartbeat of Spring effect that green mages just can’t get enough of. This card has sat at around $13 for years, but is a very popular inclusion in big mana decks like Omnath, Locus of Mana, Zacama, Primal Calamity and Kruphix, God of Horizons. There are lots of effects like Mana Reflection – Zendikar Resurgent, Mirari’s Wake, Nyxbloom Ancient, the list goes on – but big mana decks often want as many of these cards as they can get, so Mana Reflection is unlikely to be forgotten about any time soon.
6. Prismatic Omen
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $16.52
Prismatic Omen is a bit of a puzzler. It’s not played anywhere near enough in EDH to warrant being $18 – some five-color decks will play it for fixing, but broadly speaking there are better options, and there aren’t enough domain-based commanders to make this widely popular. It was once a component of old school Scapeshift in Modern, allowing you to win with a Scapeshift for just six, rather than seven, but it was largely obsoleted by Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. Why $18, then? Price memory is the only theory I have, especially as this card has shed a lot of value in the last few years. Like Plague of Vermin, Prismatic Omen has never been reprinted, and also like Plague of Vermin, I suspect its price will fall heavily when it finally gets a reprint.
5. Sunken Ruins
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $20.32
The cycle of filterlands is pretty interesting. All of them – including Wooded Bastion, Fire-Lit Thicket and Graven Cairns – have respectable price tags attached to them, but it’s the blue ones, surprise surprise, that are worth more than twice what the others are. Sunken Ruins crops up in Modern Living End decks, although never as a four-of, and that plus its usefulness as a fixer in blue-black EDH decks is apparently enough to prop up a $20 price. I think this card is over-valued, however (I’ve never thought much of the filterlands), and I’d stay away from Sunken Ruins at this price. Unless you’re trying to curve Cryptic Command into Invoke Despair, you don’t need to pay $20 for a card like this.
4. Mystic Gate
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $21.34
It’s a similar story when it comes to the other blue land in the filterland cycle: Mystic Gate. Mystic Gate is played in white-blue based control decks in Modern, both straight white-blue lists and lists splashing a third color, usually red. It makes sense: these decks want to curve Archmage’s Charm into Supreme Verdict, and Mystic Gate can help with meeting those stringent color requirements. Assuming you have no other lands that don’t tap for white or blue, then a single Mystic Gate seems like a fine inclusion, but it’s horrific in multiples and at $22 – in my opinion – Mystic Gate isn’t worth the price of admission.
3. Polluted Bonds
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $27.24
Polluted Bonds is a weird amalgam of two cards on this list: Plague of Vermin and Wound Reflection. It’s like Plague of Vermin in that it’s a splashy card with a unique effect that has never been reprinted, and it’s like Wound Reflection in that it is a staple of punishing group slug EDH decks. Appropriate, then, that it costs almost as much as those two cards put together. I will say, however, that the same thing goes for all the never-been-reprinted cards on this list: the moment more copies of Polluted Bonds are put into circulation, the price will come down quite significantly. Given how many of Shadowmoor’s expensive cards, perhaps Wizards should think about adding Shadowmoor Remastered to their product lineup!
2. Greater Auramancy
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $30.18
Another card without meaningful reprints – just a Judge Gift Card version – Greater Auramancy has been expensive for a long time. However, after peaking at $80 around two years ago, the card has fallen steadily to where it is today, around $30. Why? It hasn’t been reprinted, it doesn’t support a deckbuilding theme that has become obsolete and its effect is no less powerful than before. It spiked massively when Modern Horizons 2 brought new enchantment-based cards like Sterling Grove to the format, but is now worth less than it was before the MH2 spike. I’ll be honest: I don’t fully understand why. Are enchantment decks getting less popular? Are they moving away from effects like this? I don’t know, but I do know I’m not interested in buying into a card that has been consistently shedding value for two years.
1. Painter’s Servant
Shadowmoor
Market Price: $77.20
The more cards we see from this set, the more it becomes obvious just how due this set is for a large swath of reprints. Painter’s Servant is the best example of what the short supply of these old cards does when there is significant demand for them. On top of Painter’s Servant’s role as a critical part of a longstanding Legacy deck, where it combines with Grindstone for an instant win, Painter’s Servant is also seen in a few EDH decks that rely on cards being a certain color: Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Oona, Queen of the Fae, even Teysa, Orzhov Scion. At $75, however, this card is absurdly overpriced, and in desperate need of a reprint to bring it back to a reasonable level. Shadowmoor Remastered when?