A few days ago, Wizards of the Coast premiered the newest Festival in a Box offering for MTG Los Vegas. Thanks to an incredibly flashy Secret Lair reprint, players are quickly becoming interested in details regarding Magic’s latest offering.
On paper, the financial deal available is definitely worth it. With a Secret Lair that looks to have a secondary market value a bit under $100, a selection of packs worth about the same, and a Mystery Booster Box worth $180+, $250 seems like a no-brainer… as long as you actually want everything included.
While the chaos packs are a bit of a crapshoot in terms of what you get, the Mystery Booster Convention edition box offers cards from a larger set. Some players’ decision on whether to purchase MTG’s latest Festival in a Box may hinge on the contents of this box. If you’re planning on opening this for the contents and not for the Chaos Draft experience, figuring out what the best cards to hit are may be important.
If you’re into Commander, there are a surprising amount of goodies that can be found in these boxes. Otherwise, this product may not be for you. With some luck, you can easily recur the value of your Mystery Booster Box with significant profits!
As a final note, you can get playtest cards in the MTG Mystery Booster Convention Edition. While these are indeed worth something, we will not be covering them in this shorter list.
Here are the most expensive cards that you can open in the MTG Mystery Booster: Convention Edition!
5. MTG Recruiter of the Guard
Recruiter of the Guard is an incredibly deadly tutoring option in the Commander format. While weaker than one of the cards higher on this list, Recruiter of the Guard is uniquely a creature, which is uncommon with most popular tutor cards. This, with flicker effects like Displacer Kitten, can search up multiple cards in short order, combining into a massive combo that wins the game.
Another common way to abuse tutoring effects on creatures is with copy effects like Spark Double, or by copying Recruiter of the Guard’s effect with cards like Panharmonicon. That said, the more efficient copy effects in these situations are cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and the third chapter of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. You don’t care too much to keep the body that comes along with the Recruiter, so effects that can present multiple copies of the Recruiter over time for the search ability are strongly preferred. If you search for effects that can untap Kiki-Jiki like Pestermite with the Recruiter, this could easily lead to a ‘Splinter Twin situation.’
Recruiter of the Guard from the MTG Mystery Booster set is currently worth about $21.
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4. MTG Teferi’s Protection
Teferi’s Protection allows its caster to, essentially, cease to exist for a turn. This is a great way of getting out of any effect that will massively affect your board or life total. There are some bizarre scenarios where Teferi’s Protection will not work but, for the most part, this is the equivalent of a white get out of jail free card.
Despite seeing a recent reprint in Double Masters 2022, Teferi’s Protection is still worth about $26, but commonly sells for $30.
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3. MTG Demonic Tutor
Demonic Tutor is one of the most powerfully efficient cards in Commander. Thanks to the singleton nature of the format, finding particular cards you need to pull off deadly, potentially infinite, combos can be rather challenging. Tutors add a level of consistency to your gameplan, making them one of the strongest types of cards in the Commander format.
When it comes to tutors, Demonic Tutor is hard to beat. Capable of finding any card in your deck and putting it into your hand for just two mana, the card has been banned in Legacy and Historic. To top things off, you can only use one copy of Demonic Tutor in Vintage, MTG’s most powerful format.
Despite Demonic Tutor being one of the best Commander cards out there, it only costs about $27 currently. Even if you don’t need this card personally, finding someone that does should be relatively easy.
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2. MTG Rhystic Study
Despite Rhystic Study seeing a recent reprint as part of the Wilds of Eldraine Enchanted Tales Bonus Sheet, the card remains the second most expensive thing you can find in the Mystery Booster box.
In addition to Rhystic Study being one of the best cards in the Commander format, it’s also one of the most annoying. The card is a massive draw engine, but requires asking players to pay one mana every single time they cast a spell. Regardless, Rhystic Study is a very common card to run into at a Commander table so, while annoying, many players are likely used to it.
Its very common for an unaddressed Rhystic Study to win the game through drawing a ludicrous amount of cards. For that reason, regardless of the recent reprint, the MTG Mystery Booster copy of Rhystic Study is worth about $35.
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1. MTG Mana Crypt
Mana Crypt is one of the super staples of the Commander format. In a power level sense, you want Mana Crypt in every single Commander deck it can see play in, which is almost all of them (if not all of them).
For zero mana, the Crypt will tap for two mana every single turn. This is the equivalent of dropping two colorless lands for absolutely no cost. Having three mana when everyone else has one is an absolutely ludicrous advantage, and is why Sol Ring is also considered to be one of the most powerful cards in the Commander format.
Mana Crypt does come with a downside that, when played enough, will probably kill you at some point. The upside far outweighs the downside, however; especially when you consider that Commander starts players at 40 life.
Despite Sol Ring’s status as a Commander super staple, players can find the card for just a dollar. This is because Sol Ring is printed in almost every Commander product, making it incredibly easy to access. This is not the case for Mana Crypt.
While there are some reprints for Mana Crypt out there, all of them are not easy to access. This has been the chase card in every set Mana Crypt has been printed. Copies of Mana Crypt from Mystery Booster packs currently sell for about $190. This one MTG card is enough to cover the entire cost of your Mystery Booster box, and is, by far, the best thing you can open in MTG Mystery Booster packs, both financially and in a Commander gameplay sense.
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