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Don't Forget Me: Champions of Kamigawa

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There haven't been any new announcements this week, so we're back to our regularly scheduled "Don't forget me!" This week I'm going to take a look at another older Modern set, Champions of Kamigawa. It's a set that is near and dear to my heart because I played while it was in Standard. I can tell you for sure that a lot of these cards that are now mainstays of decks were definitely not viewed that way at the time. I don't want to admit the number of Lava Spikes I wrote on and used as proxies back in the day. But enough about my Lava Spike sob stories, let's talk about the reprints we really need.

The biggest and most egregious missing reprint is Through the Breach. It's a card that is seen in a few Modern decks but also some Legacy decks as a "fair" way to cheat a creature into play. The biggest problem with reprinting this card is the fact that it is an arcane spell. They are a special type of spell that can be "spliced onto." With that in mind, it's important to think about what other spells could be included in the set to give Wizards of the Coast a reason to include the mechanic. Thankfully, there are actually a few relevant spells that are arcane that can be included. My expectation is that when Through the Breach is included in a masters set, it will be alongside Disrupting Shoal, Nourishing Shoal, Goryo's Vengeance, Desperate Ritual, and Lava Spike. All but two of these were not included the last time arcane spells were included in a masters set (Modern Masters 2013). When this gets reprinted, it won't fall that much. I'm expecting it will be a mythic because, generally speaking, the choices for Red mythics are pretty poor (we've gotten Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker in 3 different masters sets already).

Hall of the Bandit Lord

If you're not an avid Commander player, or a fan of some really quirky and bad Modern decks, you probably don't know how much Hall of the Bandit Lord costs. It's currently the third most expensive rare in the set after Through the Breach and Azusa, Lost but Seeking (which was recently reprinted). At $25, it's in a virtual tie with the next card in this list and in desperate need of a reprint. Thankfully, this is the kind of card you can just plunk into any set, much like Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. Mikokoro is an apt comparison because it was a card that wasn't played in many decks and wasn't played as a 4 of. Mikokoro crashed from $15 to $2.50 after it was reprinted. I expect Hall of the Bandit Lord to see a similar crash in price for the newer version. If it gets reprinted before hitting $30, I would not be surprised to see it for $3-5 post reprint.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge

Minamo, School at Water's Edge is also a $25 legendary land from Champions of Kamigawa that will also crash in price when reprinted. I think this ends up a little bit more expensive than Hall of the Bandit Lord because it has a lot of applications in Commander that don't get explored due to its price tag. It's basically an island that you can include in your deck to untap a variety of legendary lands like Gaea's Cradle, Serra's Sanctum, or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. If that's not really your style, it can also untap your commander for one mana. This land, as well as Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is also sometimes played in Merfolk decks because it is a Blue mana producing land that untaps when there is a Choke in play. All factors considered, I expect this to be much cheaper when it gets reprinted. Depending on the quality of the set, Minamo has the potential to be in the $5-8 range.

Time of Need

You little surprised I didn't choose Sensei's Divining Top as the uncommon from this set? It is definitely more expensive and has been reprinted more than Time of Need but it is also one of the most useless. It's banned in Legacy and Modern and not particularly powerful in Commander or Vintage. A reprint of that card wouldn't add a lot of value to the packs and isn't one I want to advocate for. Time of Need is not that expensive yet, but has to the potential to be an essential combo piece and very very expensive. We've seen that weirdly niche cards like Mishra's Bauble can maintain unreasonably high price tags when they find a home in the right deck. This card is already $1 and it's only rarely played in Commander decks because people don't realize that there is a Green demonic tutor for legendary creatures.

Lava Spike

The last card in this list is a $5 common that has already been reprinted once. Lava Spike is a mainstay of every Red deck that can play it and will probably be for the rest of time. With the surge in Pauper play and the reprint of basically all of the expensive cards except for the lands in Modern Burn, this card continues to surge. While I would usually say that being arcane is a problem for this sort of reprint, it will fit nicely into the same set as Through the Breach and Goryo's Vengeance which are two imperative reprints for Modern. When this gets reprinted, the biggest price drops will appear in the foils. I expect regular copies to maintain a price tag over $2 because they will just always be good.

I hope you enjoyed another entry into the Don't Forget Me series. If you have any requests for sets please leave them in the comments below. If you've found these articles helpful or unhelpful, I also encourage you to leave a comment! Ultimately I want to know what you want to read and there is no better person to relay that information than you!


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