Magic: The Gathering – Most Valuable Common Cards

Common cards are everywhere in Magic: The Gathering, most of the cards in every pack you open are commons, and they will often fill out your decks when you’re in limited formats like Draft or Sealed.

While commons might not come to mind when you think of valuable cards, quite a few are worth a pretty penny, particularly those from older sets. If you’re sitting on any of these classic commons, you might have a bit of treasure tucked away in your bulk.

These values are taken from TCGplayer.com’s Market Value and are subject to change over time.

10

Fireball

Limited Edition Alpha – $153.90

The original burn spell, Fireball, is an absurdly powerful sorcery that lets you transfer your mana directly into damage. First appearing in the Limited Edition Alpha set, this spell is iconic for its power form back in Magic’s early days.

This common card now goes for a fair bit of money thanks to its prolific use in the old Channel Fireball decks, back when the game had just 40 card decks and no real restrictions on other very powerful cards (looking at you Black Lotus).

9

Red Elemental Blast

Limited Edition Alpha – $160.00

Red Elemental Blast is one of the more unique spells from Magic’s early days that is still played in current games. While you might not play it much in the main deck, it is a perfect ace in the hole in the sideboard.

This spell does two very powerful things that are not very red-like in today’s red color identity. Red Elemental Blast will:

• Counter target blue spell
• Destroy target blue permanent

Keeping a few of these in the sideboard can mean sneaking through that final burn spell or facing an agonizing defeat.

8

Command Tower

Mystery Booster 2 – $165.51

Everyone needs a few Command Towers and if you’re showing off a bit, you can always spring for this very valuable and very unique version of it. This common land comes from the Mystery Booster 2 set, a special set designed for Chaos Drafting and is exclusive to conventions.

The drop rate for cards like Command Tower from the Mystery Booster 2 packs is exceptionally low. When you consider that there are 120 other foil cards you can pull from the same slot, it makes the price of this unique Command Tower a bit more understandable.

7

Dark Ritual

Limited Edition Beta – $172.50

One of the most efficient mana production spells in the game, Dark Ritual is a powerful spell that you might overlook at first glance. For one mana you have an interrupt spell, or an instant spell, that adds three black mana to your mana pool.

Dark Ritual was categorized as an interrupt rather than an instant as we know it today. Interrupts were considered faster than instant spells and would resolve before anything else unless there was another interrupt being played.

This allows for some explosive turns, particularly early on in the game. Dark Ritual was the crux of a very strong deck in Magic’s early days, letting you play a three-man spell on your first turn.

6

Llanowar Elves

Limited Edition Alpha – $198.98

Perhaps one of the most enduring creatures in Magic: The Gathering, the Llanowar Elves are a very strong green creature that empowers decks to an explosive start. For one green mana you get an Elf that can tap for a green mana.

As an essential creature for practically any green deck, Llanowar Elves maintains a high value thanks to the limited printing of the original Alpha set. Since there are only so many cards left from Magic’s earliest days, the rarity of a highly played card drives up the price.

5

Earthbind

Limited Edition Alpha – $220.28

Earthbind is a bad Magic card, even for an old common. It has a needlessly convoluted ability, dealing two damage to the enchanted creature if it has flying, and then making it lose flying for one red mana.

The reason for the high price is also equally silly. During the release of the Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition, Wizards of the Coast elected to leave certain cards out, Earthbind included. This had some Magic fans go into a tizzy and buy out as many copies of the card as they could to drive up the price.

4

Mountain

Arabian Nights – $229.77

Get ready for a slightly weird bit of Magic trivia. In the Arabian Nights set, Wizards of the Coast originally wanted to print all five of the basic lands. At the last minute, however, WotC switched gears on the printing and decided to take off the basic lands.

But they accidentally left the Mountain on the common sheet. But because of how Arabian Nights was printed, some common and uncommon cards had fewer printings than others (there were no true rare cards in the set either, that wouldn’t come until Legends released a year later.) The Mountain was one of the harder-to-find cards in the set, leading to a relatively small number of copies available to players.

3

Dark Ritual

Limited Edition Alpha – $271.64

The Alpha version of Dark Ritual climbs a bit higher on this list than its Beta counterpart, coming in at around $100 more than the second printing. This spell is a critical card in Old School, a fan-created format that only allows cards printed in the years 1993 to 1994.

This means that fans of the format will be collecting this mana-ramping black card for their decks, increasing the value of this already expensive card.

2

Lightning Bolt

Limited Edition Beta – $376.90

Perhaps the pinnacle of burn spells, Lighting Bolt is a huge card for any red deck that can play it. For one red mana you can deal three damage to any target, making it the first burn spell many players think of first.

The Beta version of this card is a little lower than its Alpha counterpart, as there are more copies available, and the set had a higher print run. That said, the price difference isn’t that much, so keep that in mind if you’re looking to pick up a few copies.

1

Lightning Bolt

Limited Edition Alpha – $391.34

Taking the top slot is everyone’s favorite burn spell, Lighting Bolt. This little spell is the bread and butter of any burn deck that can play it, given its damage-to-mana ratio and efficiency.

You can tell the difference between an Alpha and Beta card thanks to Alpha cards having more curved corners than your average Magic card. Given that Alpha cards had an extremely limited print run, and they are highly collectible cards for players, it means that the almost $400 price point won’t be going down anytime soon.