Magic: The Gathering‘s latest set, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, features some powerful reprints and a collaboration with Jurassic World. Not only can you crack open iconic artifacts in the set – Mana Crypt anyone? – you can also get equally iconic characters from the Jurassic World franchise.
In conjunction with the release of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Wizards sent over a box of Set Boosters from the new set for us to unbox. Without further ado, let’s start unboxing and see what kind of powerful artifacts and Jurassic World cards we can get!
But before we get to the meat of the unboxing, we have to check out the neat media pack that Wizards gave us. For The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, we got a box filled with…pebbles? And hidden among the pebbles are cutouts to assemble a dinosaur – very apt for the set’s theme.
Anyway, let’s get to the Set Boosters now. Bundled with every box of Ixalan’s Set Boosters – as well as Draft and Collector Boosters – is a Treasure Trove Box Topper, which includes a card from a pool of 20 borderless cards. 19 of them are reprints from outside the plane of Ixalan, and the last one is a card from the main set: Chimil, The Inner Sun.
While we didn’t get that card, we were fortunate enough to crack open Chalice of the Void in our pack of Treasure Trove Box Topper. Currently, this artifact card is going for a cool $74.99, which comes up to about RM350 (!). If we had bought this box of Set Boosters, we would be well on our way to breaking even on the cost.
Now that we’re done with the Treasure Trove Box Topper, let’s move on with the unboxing. Unlike Draft Boosters, Set Boosters are meant to be more “exciting” to crack open, making it ideal for folks who just enjoy opening booster packs instead of using them for Limited play, such as Draft or Sealed.
What makes an MTG Set Booster more exciting to open is the structure of the 14-card pack. For The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, 12 of them are guaranteed Magic cards, while the other two are an art card and a token/ad card. The latter has a chance to be replaced with a card from The List, but what’s even more exciting is the fact that it is also a slot for “Special Guests.”
The absolute best card you can get in this slot is none other than Mana Crypt, which is listed at a whopping $159.99 on Card Kingdom – that’s approximately RM750. Of course, you’d have to be very lucky to get that card of out 18 different borderless reprints. In our box of Set Boosters, we only got one Special Guest card, Polyraptor – it’s priced at $25.99 now (about RM120).
Aside from the Special Guests, we have the aforementioned Jurassic World collaboration with The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. These Jurassic World cards are only found within one in 12 packs of Set Boosters, and a box of Set Boosters contain 30 packs. In theory, you should get (at worst) two Jurassic World cards.
In our box, we got lucky and cracked open three Jurassic World cards, including the most expensive one from the set (at the time of writing), Hunting Velociraptor. It’s currently going for $49.99 (around RM235), and it’s a great addition to any dinosaur-themed deck.
As for cards that are found in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan itself, our pulls were not particularly great. The Roaming Throne (in foil) is the most valuable card of the set we got, which is listed at $15.99 (about RM75). Next is Bloodletter of Aclazotz ($11.99, approximately RM55) in the standard version and the showcase Legends of Ixalan treatment.
While our pulls from the main Ixalan set weren’t great, the Jurassic World cards and the Chalice of the Void we opened from the Treasure Trove Box Topper easily surpassed the cost of this particular box of Ixalan Set Boosters. Plus, we also got some sweet full-art basic lands.
It’s no surprise that you can recoup – and sometimes even make a small profit – from a box of MTG Set Boosters in most cases. But the main caveat is that you will get random cards, and you may not pull for the one card that you want. Nonetheless, it’s always good fun to unbox Set Boosters.
If you’re keen to get any products in Magic: The Gathering’s new The Lost Caverns of Ixalan set, give your nearest game store a visit. There’s a wide variety of products to choose from, including Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, Commander Decks, Prerelease Packs, and even Bundles.