We’ve known Masters 25 has been coming for a while now. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Magic: The Gathering’s existence, and that makes me feel a bit old. I can remember opening packs of these cards in elementary school and not really knowing what was going on, and spent in total probably around 8-10 years actively playing the game so it’s fair to say I’m invested. I’m glad that it’s managed to stay around all this time — it is my current obsession. With that said, the entirety of the set was spoiled recently and I had some thoughts on it.

It’s tax return season, and aside from putting some money into savings I decided to spend a little on the Zur the Enchanter deck I wrote about a few days ago. My girlfriend also hinted that she wanted to make my friends jealous with a purchase and I had two thoughts. My first desire was a set of the 10 shock lands, but then I thought about buying a box of Masters 25 which was a similar investment. Now that I’ve seen the full set, I’m glad that I decided to go with the shock lands that are currently in the mail. The really isn’t as much here as I was expecting. Sure, there are staples a plenty, but many of the cards are things I already own sometimes in multiple prints. The big chase cards are those that are currently worth money. Those cards like Jace, The Mind Sculptor that will actually lose value due to the reprinting but will eventually climb up again. Clearly I’m not thrilled here, but I’d still like to point out some cards that I desire and some great staples you should look out for especially if you play EDH.

Multi-Colored:

The only card here I wouldn’t mind having is Prossh, mainly because he seems like a fun commander to build around. Animar isn’t so bad either. The others are either staples or plain ol’ cool reprints.

White:

Rest in Peace is actually a decent card, particularly if you’re running a deck that doesn’t care about graveyard recursion, and even better if your enemies are! The older Thalia is a great add to control/stax/tax type decks, and there’s some other staples here as well. If you’re running a token deck, Darien and Luminarch Ascension are nice enablers.

Blue:

The real money card of the set is here in Jace, the Mind Sculptor. He’s one busted Planeswalker, and his recent unbanning in Modern means that people will actually be able to use the reprint. Getting him will be like winning the lotto though! Otherwise we have some great staples here, along with an interesting enchantment I’d like a copy of in Freed from the Real.

Black:

Doomsday is the real winner here, being a card that fits into many a competitive EDH list. Other staples include the 2nd printing of Ravenous Chupacabra, a great removal tool for black.

Red:

The Recruiter is nice, and would fit right into the Alesha deck I’m working on. I am disappointed to see Blood Moon reprinted so soon, as I lucked into a copy back when Modern Masters 2017 hit the scene last year. It was a $20+ card. We’ll see how much it tanks shortly.

Green:

Some interesting cards here, some token generation, tutoring, and cheating. I like these cards but don’t necessarily have a place I would put them.

Artifacts and Lands:

Some other staple artifacts get a reprint, along with a nasty pillowfort tool. Ash Barrens gets a 2nd printing, and we get a fresh printing of the filter lands as well. Good stuff to have.

Overall it’s a fairly hum drum set but as I said there are a handful of decent pickups. I’ll probably just buy a couple packs and then head to the singles store.