Curated with value.
Introduced in Zendikar Rising, The List is a catalog of Magic: The Gathering cards that first took inspiration from the Mystery Booster product line. As part of Wizards of the Coast’s concept of “Booster Fun,” cards from The List only appear in about 25% of Set Boosters instead of a marketing card. The List changes and updates on a set-by-set basis, where Wizards of the Coast will announce the most recent The List catalog in conjunction with the latest release with Set Booster support.
For example, with Phyrexia: All Will Be One, there are around 300 cards from The List you can open in Set Boosters with representation from Commons to Mythic Rares. This time around, many of the new additions to The List center around Phyrexia and some of the iconic cards from these releases, including Sword of War and Peace and Mycosynth Lattice, with some Planeswalkers making a return like Tyvar and Kaya as they feature within the current Magic storyline. In particular, some of these cards from The List are valuable depending on their uses in other formats. While it may seem a little confusing that you opened a Blightsteel Colossus from your Phyrexia: All Will Be One Set Booster since it isn’t in the expansion, the card itself is worth around $35 as it is a strong win condition in Commander.
Blightsteel Colossus
The List
Market Price: $37.35
With that in mind, it is easy to discard these The List cards if you have never seen them before, but it is always worth checking their value as you may be pleasantly surprised. A quick trick to know if you have a card from The List is to check the bottom left corner. If you see a little white Planeswalker symbol on the card, it is a The List card from a Set Booster. With that out of the way, let’s run down some of the most valuable cards from The List with Phyrexia: All Will Be One’s release.
#10 Mycosynth Golem
The List
Market Price: $36.19
A card that saw renewed interest since the release of The Brothers’ War is Mycosynth Golem, a card that enables other artifact creatures you control affinity for artifacts — allowing explosive turns within an artifact-focused Commander strategy. In addition, Mycosynth Golem slides well into the Urza’s Iron Alliance Commander Precon along with other Commanders such as Megatron, Tyrant and Libeator, Urza’s Batlethopter. With only one genuine printing in Fifth Dawn, Mycosynth Golem continues to be a valuable card as the artifact synergy is simply too good to pass up, and remains a valuable card to open from The Lis.
#9 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
The List
Market Price: $41.18
A popular card alongside Cabal Coffers is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, another valuable card that appears on The List. Mostly a Commander desirable card these days, Urborg offers applications in Pioneer and Modern for Rakdos Midrange archetypes, where you want a solid density of Swamps despite the symmetrical effect. While it seems unimpressive, pairing this with Cabal Coffers allows you to ramp to absurd levels as Urborg turns every land you control into a Swamp. From a highly casual standpoint, opening a The List printing of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth may seem a little confusing. However, it remains a popular card for Commander and one to keep in your collection.
#8 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
The List
Market Price: $39.35
A popular Mono-Black Commander option, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon saw a notable price spike due to the release of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, as the expansion introduced Toxic and Corrupted, new keywords that are adjacent to Infect. Through this renewed interest in Infect, other cards such as Hand of Praetors also saw a price spike as Commander players re-explored the idea of dealing poison damage within a pod.
Market Price: $9.46
Mostly, you see Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon Commander builds defer to a Voltron-style strategy, where you gear up the Dragon Skeleton with Auras and Equipment, then take it from there. No matter how you feel about Infect in Commander, Skithiryx is a unique Commander that comes with an interesting deckbuilding limitation, but if you aren’t a fan of Infect — it’s still a valuable card to open in Set Boosters.
#7 Demonic Tutor
UMA
The List
Market Price: $44.36
Tutors play a critical role in Commander, where finding the card you need in any given situation gives you a better chance to close the game. Demonic Tutor is one of these and the one that achieves this effect the best. With the release of Dominaria Remastered, the value of The List copies of cards such as Enlightened Tutor and Vampiric Tutor have dipped in value as Dominaria Remastered reprints plummeted the overall price to a more affordable rate.
Market Price: $15.10
Market Price: $33.11
Since Demonic Tutor missed a reprint from this release, it’s probably the reason the card is seeing fresh interest, with The List printing appearing as one of the more valuable cards from this catalog at the time of writing.
#6 Land Tax
The List
Market Price: $43.46
Ramping in white can be a challenge when playing Commander, but Land Tax can offer this within reason. First appearing in Legends, Land Tax is a situational ramp card — where you can find up to three Basic land cards if an opponent controls more lands than you. Appearing in a smattering of supplemental releases such as Double Masters 2022 and Battlebond, Land Tax remains a valuable card due to Commander and Cube applications. Given the unique effect that Land Tax offers, the card will maintain a solid price as white isn’t known for ramping with Basics within its color identity.
#5 Anointed Procession
The List
Market Price: $42.28
A color-shifted Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession is a desirable Commander card for numerous reasons. For a Token strategy, the ability to double-up on these effects is critical and will continue to see demand for as long as Commander remains popular. Similar attention occurs with cards such as Doubling Season and the previously mentioned Parallel Lives, as it enables you to have these explosive turns with little effort. In addition, Mondrak, Glory Dominus from Phyrexia: All Will Be One is another token-doubling effect seeing high interest from Commander players.
Market Price: $89.01
Market Price: $43.14
Market Price: $50.55
First printed in Amonkhet, Anointed Procession quickly became a Commander staple, which hasn’t seen a genuine reprint since. While The List is a pseudo-reprint of sorts, the value of Anointed Procession continues to climb as it somehow dodged a reprint in Double Masters 2022, making the card a valuable one to open from The List.
#4 Gemstone Caverns
The List
Market Price: $50.07
One of the few valuable The List cards that doesn’t often see heavy play in Commander is Gemstone Caverns, a unique colorless mana source that offers applications in constructed formats such as Modern and Legacy. For Modern, the card appears in Tron, Crashing Footfalls, and Hardened Scales, with the latter seeing a resurgence after a few solid finishes in Magic Online Modern Challenges. While you mostly see Gemstone Caverns as a single copy given the effect, being able to cheat ahead on mana while on the draw is an excellent thing to do. With two printings in Time Spiral and an upshift to Mythic Rare in Time Spiral Remastered, Gemstone Caverns commands a high value as the effect is unusual and rewards mulliganing when on the draw. There’s not a card quite like Gemstones Cavern in Magic: The Gathering,
#3 Wrenn and Six
The List
Market Price: $51.17
One of the more warping cards to enter Modern is Wrenn and Six, and the most valuable card on The List. First printed in Modern Horizons, Wrenn and Six quickly commanded the Modern format as the plus ability can recur cards such as Wooded Foothills or Scalding Tarn back to hand. By continuing to plus Wrenn’s first ability, you can fix your mana while reducing the chance of drawing Land cards in the later turns. Four-Color Omnath, Four-Color Creativity, and Azorius Control successfully adopt the card to profound success. A big reason why these Four and Five-Color archetypes can exist is because of Wrenn and Six and the fantastic mana support in Modern.
Market Price: $26.99
Market Price: $22.85
Market Price: $15.12
It’s that good, Wrenn and Six caught a ban in the Legacy format as the minus ability eroded any strategy that wanted to play one-toughness creatures such as Death & Taxes. Also, it’s pretty obnoxious alongside Wasteland, a Legacy staple where you strip the opponent’s resources of popular non-Basic mana options such as Volcanic Island or Gaea’s Cradle. Being able to recur Wasteland every turn and reduce the opponent’s ability to cast spells became too much, and rightly saw a ban in the format. There’s plenty of discourse on whether Wrenn and Six should meet a similar fate in Modern as the ability to smooth out your mana is incredibly strong, causing no downside to playing the card (outside of the financial reasons, of course).
Seeing a smattering of printings in Modern Horizons and Double Masters 2022, Wrenn and Six remains a highly valuable card, with The List printing coming in at nearly $60 at the time of writing. Wrenn and Six is by far the best two-mana value Planeswalker seen in Magic: The Gathering, and it isn’t close. Sorry, Tibalt.
#2 Cavern of Souls
The List
Market Price: $55.42
Creature-matter archetypes are a prevalent aspect of Magic: The Gathering and Cavern of Souls remains one of the best-supported cards for the archetype. Having the confidence to cast your creature cards without the fear of countermagic is a fantastic feeling, especially when you overwhelm your opponent with synergistic effects. Cavern of Souls features heavily in multiple formats — including Modern, Legacy, and Commander.
Market Price: $38.74
Market Price: $9.43
Goblins, Elves, Merfolk, and Humans are all much-loved creatures in Magic: The Gathering, and in a competitive landscape, Cavern of Souls plays a significant role in providing success. In addition, the card sees incidental play in strategies such as Modern Amulet Titan, where you want to ensure your Primeval Titan remains uncounterable to further your game plan. With that in mind, Cavern of Souls is an expensive card, as creature-matter archetypes typically want to run a complete playset to guarantee they can draw the card during games. Despite the numerous printings in Double Masters 2022 and Ultimate Masters, Cavern of Souls remains an expensive card and one you’ll want to open from The List.
#1 Ancient Tomb
The List
Market Price: $141.89
Another expensive yet powerful land to appear in The List is Ancient Tomb, which is often referred to as a “Sol Land” as it offers fantastic acceleration similar to Sol Ring. As you may guess with the naming convention, Ancient Tomb is an excellent mana option for Commander as you start on forty life — mitigating any life loss as you take two damage when tapping the card.
Applications also extend to Legacy, where it is common to play Ancient Tomb and then cast a Chalice of the Void with one counter — preventing those Brainstorms, Ponders, and Dark Rituals from being cast. Often you see Ancient Tomb appear in Eldrazi Stompy, Sneak and Show, Painter, and many more Legacy archetypes. While Legacy remains one of the most expensive constructed formats, Ancient Tomb remains an expensive card from The List due to the popularity of the Commander format — where any Commander strategy can adopt the powerful mana accelerant.