The 10 Best Reprints of 2024

In honor of this week's start of Innistrad Remastered previews, it's time to take a look back at the year that was, in the context of reprints. 

It's no secret that I love reprints. Every card printed is either a new card or a reprint, and there are pros and cons to both of course; new cards allow the game to add new ideas, increase the card pool for a multitude of strategies as well as create never-before-seen strategies, and give us more examples of vanilla creatures used to teach people how to draft. Oh, and fun fact: over the course of the entirety of 2024, there was only one non-reprint vanilla creature created:

Long gone are the days of Alpha Tyrranax and Vorstclaw. 

This isn't about new cards, though. We're here to talk reprints, and there are plenty of reasons why I highly recommend everyone to ditch the new card bullet train and board the Reprint Express (which is like one of those really slow trains that go in a loop at the zoo).

Listen, there are simply too many new cards these days. Across the various main set releases, Universes Beyond, and other accoutrement, there were 2,061 new cards printed. That's 2,061 new cards we have to learn. That we have to read. Who has time for that?

Reprints give us the best of both worlds. We often get new art, frames and borders for old favorites, and we don't have to memorize anything. You simply cannot beat that deal. 

So what were the best reprints of 2024? We certainly had plenty from which to choose. All told, there were 4,495 reprints this year, and more than a few of those were printed more than once across various Commander decks, Jumpstarts, Secret Lairs and other releases. We were eating good this year on the reprint front in terms of sheer volume, but which were the most impactful in terms of value and playability? 

If you're familiar with my regular Reprint Reviews, you know we look at this particular subset of cards through the dual lenses of "Did we want it?" and "Did we need it?" For these 10 cards, the answer to both those questions is a resounding "Yes!" but some are Yes-ier than others, as we'll see. We'll start from 10th and work our way up.

10. Swarmyard

Until its appearance in Bloomburrow Commander, your art options for Swarmyard were pretty extreme. On one side, you had the original art, courtesy of noted gross-stuff artist Tom Baxa, and on the other side, you had Carl Critchlow's cute squirrels:

With this year's version, you get to split the difference, as Volkan Baga's depiction features a marshy fen filled with skeletons, but the skeletons are scoring a non-zero on the cuteness scale. 

It was a foregone conclusion that Swarmyard was going to appear in Bloomburrow, fitting better than reprinting Murder Investigation in Murders at Karlov Manor (which they didn't actually do, by the way). Before the reprint, Swarmyard was around $15, and if you wanted one today, you can find one as cheap as $9. That's not quite as much of a drop in price as I'd like to see, but you can't argue that nine is a smaller number than 15. 

Head over to the Bloomburrow Reprint Review for more details.

9. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

When I wrote up the Reprint Review for Duskmourn: House of Horror, I was shocked to learn Aesi, originally from Commander Legends, was at the time going for more than $30 a copy. I had no idea the card was so expensive, especially since it's probably the most boring Simic legend printed since, well, whatever the one was that was printed right before it. 

So putting a $30 card into a preconstructed Commander deck was a pretty nifty deal, since you can get your very own copy, guaranteed. And since it was in a precon, it all but ensures the price of buying a single copy would plummet, and that's exactly what happened. Right now, you can get a copy for around $7-8. And since the reprint is almost identical in appearance to the original version outside the set symbol, the Commander Legends Aesi is also much cheaper, going for $10. 

The numbers on EDHREC haven't seen much change since this reprint, but that's to be expected for a legendary creature. It has seen a jump in use as a member of other decks' 99s, though.

8. Vigor

Sure, the reprint this year of Vigor doesn't look like Vigor, but rather a Fog Crawler, which I'm told by the Internet is a monstrous creature from Fallout 4's Far Harbor expansion (which I have definitely played, but for some reason cannot remember). But it's still Vigor in everything but name. 

Vigor/Fog Crawler makes the list here because until this reprint, there was only one version of the card, with the same Jim Murray art and border. There's nothing wrong with either, of course, but we like options here in reprint land, which is certainly evident in the extremely different Pip-Boy frame. We also like things to be cheaper thanks to a reprint, and Vigor's reprint in Fallout didn't do a lot for that, but it did make the card a few dollars less expensive.

Read more at the Fallout Reprint Review, here.

7. Comeuppance

Other than being a fun word to say, Comeuppance is also a fun card to play, and thanks to the reprint this year, more people than ever will see what I mean. Coming to us from Murders at Karlov Manor Commander, it's the first reprint of Comeuppance ever, and first appearance since it debuted in Commander 2014. 

At the start of this year, Comeuppance was not cheap, especially for what it was, going for around $12. That's no longer the case now, thanks to the reprint, with the card found for as low as a single lonely dollar. And because of its affordability and revival in the consciousness of Commander players, we've seen its usage jump as well. At the time of the reprint, according to EDHREC, Comeuppance was played in 10,765 lists. Today, that number's almost doubled, to 20,059.

Cheaper, and more popular. That's the bread and butter of reprint logic, right there.

And if you want to see what else was reprinted in Murders at Karlov Manor, head to the Reprint Review.

6. Deserted Temple

Deserted Temple is a classic example of a card that time forgot. Originally from Odyssey, the card only saw one reprint in its first 22 years of existence, as Weathertop courtesy of Tales of Middle-earth Commander. Over those two decades, Deserted Temple went from under a buck to more than $20, steadily crawling upward thanks to its status as old-bordered, rare and hard-to-find.

There is absolutely no reason why a card like Deserted Temple should be $20 other than those factors listed above, so when it finally got a "true" reprint in Modern Masters 3, balance was restored. And by that, I mean you can get a copy for roughly 90 cents now. The original Odyssey version's still more than ten times that number, and you don't even want to look at how much a foil is (it's $140). But if you just wanted a land to untap your Cabal Coffers, it's never been cheaper.

Thanks to that affordability, we've seen EDHREC usage numbers spike hard. At the time of MH3's release, Deserted Temple was played in 17,161 decks. Today, that number is 26,893. 

See all the Modern Masters 3 reprints over here.

5. Authority of the Consuls

Foundations brought us a ton of awesome reprints, so many that I had to break the Reprint Review into two parts, which you can find here and here.

Authority of the Consuls is one of the more interesting reprints from Foundations, as the card until recently had never had a fair shake at a reprint. Sure, it was on The List for awhile, but we don't really count that. Being from Kaladesh and only Kaladesh, the price of the card was much higher than it should be, which kept it out of the grubby little mitts of players looking to slow their opponents down in a game of Commander. 

I'm sure there'll be a few among you that wish this card wasn't reprinted, or that it didn't exist at all. I hear you, and your feelings are valid. I mean, they're wrong, but they're valid. Before the reprint, we saw Authority of the Consuls in around 90,000 decks, and already that number has climbed to 96,000, despite the fact that Foundations has been out for only a few weeks. It's also significantly cheaper, too, with this new version available for less than half of the $10 for the Kaladesh version pre-reprint.

4. Temporal Trespass/Time Stop

We're going to do a two-fer here, since these are basically the same card with the same story. 

Temporal Trespass was printed in Fate Reforged and saw its first-ever reprint in Assassin's Creed this year. At the time of the reprint it was $20. Now it's $3. 

Time Stop hadn't been printed since Tenth Edition, before seeing its first reprint in 17 years (outside of a singular Secret Lair) in Foundations. It was only $3-4 at that time, but hey, now it's less than two quarters. 

Temporal Trespass was played in a shade over 20,000 decks when it appeared in Assassin's Creed, and that number is now 27,500. 

Time Stop was only in 4,773 decks at the time of the reprint, but now it's in 5,348 decks. 

So fine, the two cards aren't that similar outside of the fact that they're both blue extra-turn spells that haven't been printed in a long time. But do we need more reasons to arbitrarily group stuff together? I don't think so.

3. Phyrexian Tower

Similarly to Deserted Temple, Phyrexian Tower also got the alternate name treatment not that long ago, in its case as Dracula's Tomb in a 2021 Secret Lair. It was also printed in Jumpstart as well as Ultimate Masters. For a land as impactful and iconic as Phyrexian Tower, that's not the best track record in terms of allowing new players to score a copy. 

That kind of changed with Modern Horizons 3, however. We didn't see the monumental price drop-off like we did with Deserted Temple, but it certainly is now more affordable than it ever was. Copies of Phyrexian Tower before this year's reprint were flirting with triple digits, but now you can acquire a copy for as low as $20. And if you want to show off the original Urza's Saga version, you still can, since that one's cheaper too, but still over $50. 

It should also be noted that in addition to the regular pack version in MH3, we also were gifted a borderless version that's pretty dang cool:

Players have been taking advantage of Phyrexian Tower being affordable, with EDHREC-logged usage going from around 160,000 to today's number of 212,201. It's an awesome card and I'm happy more people than ever are able to use it.

2. Terror of the Peaks

Nearly every set has a massive red dragon, but not every set has one that we've seen before. That was the case with Outlaws of Thunder Junction, however, and they picked a good one to bring back. 

Terror of the Peaks is a winged version of Warstorm Surge, and Commander players of a certian age absolutely love Warstorm Surge. So it's no surprise that before this reprint, Terror of the Peaks, originally from Core Set 2021, was a $35 dragon. The reprint this year was the card's first, and since it was a regular set mythic rare and not some collector booster exclusive special guest promo, we've seen an impact on the price. Today, you can get the basic version for $15. Not a bad discount.

As its status as a massive red dragon would indicate, it's a very popular card before and after the reprint. Before OTJ, EDHREC showed players jamming it into around 95,000 decks. We've seen that number jump considerably, with EDHREC today reporting that Terror of the Peaks is played in 120,023 lists. It's still shoved into every dragon deck you can think of, but because it's easier to get, more players can replace a lesser dragon in their 99 with Terror of the Peaks.

Honorable Mentions

Before we get to Number One on our list of the Best Reprints of 2024, let's take a quick look at some of the reprints from this year that almost made this list:

• Guardian Project: Originally from 2019's Ravnica Allegiance, Guardian Project was brought back to us this year twice, in Ravnica Remastered AND Fallout. Before this year, there wasn't a version to be had for under $10. It's slightly cheaper today, but not by much, despite the dual reprints.
• Kalonian Hydra: Bloomburrow Commander gave us a new copy of Kalonian Hydra, which, despite being in a March of the Machine precon, was still $12. It's half that price now.
• Dryad Arbor: Another dual reprint, we saw Dryad Arbor appear in both Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander as well as Mystery Boosters 2. Thanks to that added exposure, Dryad Arbor's now a $2 card, down from around $10.
• Allied Fetchlands: Bloodstained Mire and the gang returned in Modern Horizons 3, and immediately saw their average price get sliced in half. You can even get a Windswept Heath for under $10. What a world.
• Reconnaissance: This was a $15 uncommon from Exodus that saw its first reprint (other than a Secret Lair) in Assassin's Creed. Now it's only $4.
• Conspiracy: Another Assassin's Creed reprint, Conspiracy was $7 for its Mercadian Masques version before the reprint, but now, you can get the newest one for under a buck.

1. Cover of Darkness

Yes, this is another Universes Beyond exclusive reprint, in this case Assassin's Creed. There's plenty to grumble about when it comes to a reprint like Cover of Darkness headlining what by all metrics was a very mediocre UB release. 

By that, I mean this year's reprint of Cover of Darkness was the card's first reprint. To put that into context, Cover of Darkness was printed in Onslaught. In 2002. Because of that, much like Deserted Temple, its price ballooned to upwards of $40. But thanks to this reprint, despite it being a Universes Beyond release that no one really seemed to buy, you can now get a copy of Cover of Darkness for around $4 for that Assassin's Creed version. Even the original printing's price has fallen considerably, to around $23. You can't argue with results. 

And speaking of results, thanks to its newfound affordability, more people than ever are playing Cover of Darkness. At the time of its reprinting in Assassin's Creed, only around 18,000 decks played the card. Right now, EDHREC reports that number has more than doubled, to 37,627 lists playing Cover of Darkness. 

If you want to see what else was reprinted in Assassin's Creed, head over here.

Every Odyssey Begins With a Single Step

And with that, we're done. 

It's been a long, long year, both inside Magic and out, and it seems that next year's only going to feel longer. At least we'll always have reprints to surround ourselves with, to ward off the scary new things that the world is going to throw at us.

Have any of these reprints made it into your decks that otherwise you wouldn't have used? Anything I didn't mention today? Let me know below.