Rise of the Eldrazi? More like Rise of the Prices!
Rise of the Eldrazi is a very famous set in Magic’s overall history, as the place where we first met the Eldrazi and their iconic titans: Ulamog, Kozilek and Emrakul. The set was also famous for encouraging people to play “battlecruiser Magic” – great big powerful creatures and spells crashing into each other, rather than the ruthless, spiky optimization that comes with tempo decks and their one and two-drops. The set is pretty deep with expensive cards, too – although, as we’ll discover, some of them are nowhere near as expensive as they used to be. And finally, at the risk of sounding very clickbaity, you won’t believe what comes in at number one! No, seriously, you won’t. Hint: it’s not a titan!
10. All Is Dust
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $9.15
All Is Dust is more or less a must-play for any colorless commander deck. From older commanders like Kozilek, the Great Distortion and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to newcomers like Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch and Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter, anyone running a deck filled with artifacts and other colorless permanents would be foolish not to play All Is Dust. As a one-sided sweeper that gets around indestructibility and regeneration, All Is Dust is absurdly powerful – it’s even played in Modern, as a one-sided Plague Wind in Eldrazi Tron decks.
9. Khalni Hydra
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $13.63
This card isn’t the most commonly played, but when it’s good, it’s really good. Fringe devotion commanders like Nylea, Keen-Eyed and Renata, Called to the Hunt make excellent use of all those green pips, while other mono-green decks that just want to slam huge monsters into play can usually get Khalni Hydra down for a handful of mana (and sometimes zero!). Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Omnath, Locus of Mana, and of course Gargos, Vicious Watcher all make good use of Khalni Hydra, but the real reason behind its $13 price tag is that’s it’s a mythic with a unique and niche ability that has never been properly reprinted.
8. Lighthouse Chronologist
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $13.45
It takes a lot of investment to get there, but if left alone for long enough Lighthouse Chronologist will eventually start bagging you a ton of extra turns. You can imagine how powerful it would be in a game of Commander to alternate turns like this: rather than A-B-C-D it goes A-B-A-C-A-D and so on. Busted! The only problem is that for the most part, Lighthouse Chronologist is a two-mana 1/3 that dies to a stiff breeze, and doesn’t often survive long enough to get its seven counters. Still, it’s a strong inclusion in any extra turns deck, and with the new Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, maybe it’ll be a bit easier to proliferate the needed level counters.
7. Eldrazi Conscription
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $9.98
Auras don’t come much better than this. For eight mana, you can turn more or less any creature into an Eldrazi titan, and in decks that want to exploit Aura-based synergies, that’s a very attractive proposition. Danitha, Benalia’s Hope can cheat it out, Killian, Ink Duelist makes it cheaper, and Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief copies it – and that’s on top of it being played in all the colorless Eldrazi decks we mentioned before while talking about All Is Dust. Eldrazi Conscription is a widely-played card across a few different EDH archetypes, and even as a rare and with an Ultimate Masters reprint, it’s still worth $15.
6. Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $23.60
Linvala isn’t the $50 she was back in 2014 and 2016, when she was a key part of the Modern metagame, but she’s still a respectable $20 – and that’s with a couple of reprints, too. Linvala is a classic hate piece, designed to restrict what your opponents are able to do, and so sees play in hateful EDH decks led by the likes of Yasharn, Implacable Earth and Gaddock Teeg. But – and don’t overlook this aspect of the card – she’s also an Angel, and a relatively cheap one which makes a huge difference to her popularity. EDH Angel decks want Linvala not necessarily for her ability, although it is useful, but because there aren’t a huge number of good Angels that cost four or less.
5. It That Betrays
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $18.34
Another card that hasn’t been reprinted meaningfully and still commands a pretty high price is It That Betrays. Its reanimation ability paired with annihilator is absolutely disgusting, meaning that It That Betrays is an auto-include in any deck led by the Eldrazi titans with annihilator (Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre). Additionally, it isn’t bad in any other deck that forces your opponents to sacrifice their stuff (Sheoldred, Whispering One, Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire), and you can do silly things with commanders like Rakdos, Lord of Riots to cheat it into play. Any future reprints will probably see this card fall in price pretty significantly, but until then it will probably hold steady at around $20, as it has for years.
4. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $20.71
Emrakul’s price has been a bit of a rollercoaster over the years. $20 in 2012, $50 in 2014, $30 in 2016, $45 in 2018, $25 in 2020, $60 in 2022 – and since then the price has dropped significantly and seems to still be falling, leaving us with a card that is barely above $20 for the original Rise of the Eldrazi version. Emrakul has been reprinted a ton of times, and is no longer the expensive, marquee mythic it once was. Somehow, it’s the cheapest of the original Eldrazi titans! Banned in Commander and without much of a home in Modern, where various decks have cheated it into play over the years, Emrakul is definitely in a period of market downturn. Things could turn around, however – if a new way to cheat huge monsters into play emerges, you know Emrakul is going to be at the top of everyone’s list!
3. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $26.43
Original Ulamog has fared a little better than Emrakul, but there was a point just a few short years ago where this was a $100 card. Now, like Emrakul, its price is steadily falling, leaving us with a price point of around $25 – how the mighty have fallen! It’s not even close to being a popular colorless commander, and this plus the combination of steady reprints and better top-end options mean that this Ulamog is less popular and therefore more accessible than ever. This is great news for anyone looking to put together an Eldrazi-themed EDH deck, however, as titans like Ulamog aren’t going to cost you an arm and a leg any more.
2. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Rise Of The Eldrazi
Market Price: $28.63
With a similar price trajectory to the original Ulamog, much of what you can say about Ulamog also applies to the original Kozilek. Kozilek is slightly more popular as a commander, but still lightyears behind the new Kozilek: Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth’s price is falling steadily, and while it holds more value than the other original titans, at $30 it’s not by much. All of them are regularly played in Eldrazi-themed EDH decks, but very rarely as a commander: it’s much more common to see them in the 99. Reduced demand, plenty of supply and new colorless all-stars being printed each year mean that – financially speaking, at least – these titans are shadows of their former selves.
1. Training Grounds
Rise Of The Eldrazi
If you asked a random Magic player what the most expensive card in Rise of the Eldrazi is, I think it would be reasonable to assume that most would guess it was one of the three titans. It’s not, however – it’s not even a mythic! A humble one-mana rare enchantment holds the top spot, at $32: Training Grounds. While the titans have been falling in price, Training Grounds has held steady for years. No proper reprints, no obsoletion from better options, nothing like that – Training Grounds has had its price supported, more than anything else, by cEDH. Thrasios players need this card to halve the cost of his ability, and that’s just the start. It’s also useful in regular EDH, in any blue deck that has a commander with a mana-based activated ability. Sliver Overlord, Kenessos, Priest of Thassa, the list goes on – Training Grounds is a unique and powerful enough card to command quite a considerable price, and end up as the most expensive card in the same set that introduced the Eldrazi titans to the world!