Magic: The Gathering is reaching into its stock of highly effective artifacts to reprint a sword value almost $30, full with gloriously nostalgic online game paintings. Sword of Reality and Justice, a well-liked Tools first launched in 2019, is returning in a brand new Secret Lair assortment that pulls inspiration from the blocky, polygonal graphics of the Nintendo 64 and authentic PlayStation period.
Introduced by Wizards of the Coast on November 3, the Rise of the Polygons | Additional Life 2026 drop options 4 reprinted playing cards and an Elemental token, with half of the acquisition value benefiting kids’s hospitals. The $39.99 non-foil assortment additionally consists of one other beneficial reprint in Balefire Dragon, making this a doubtlessly attractive proposition for Commander gamers, collectors, and anybody who nonetheless will get misty-eyed serious about Ocarina of Time (or its remake).
Sword of Reality and Justice Will get a Delightfully Blocky Retro Makeover
Initially launched in 2019’s Trendy Horizons, Sword of Reality and Justice belongs to Magic‘s illustrious cycle of “swords,” a lot of which command appreciable sums on the secondary market. In line with current market costs, the unique non-foil printing hovers round $29, whereas sure premium variations fetch much more.
The three-mana artifact provides its outfitted creature +2/+2 and safety from each white and blue, already a formidable mixture. Nonetheless, its fight injury capacity is the place issues get notably nasty. At any time when the outfitted creature damages an opponent, its controller locations a +1/+1 counter on a creature they management, then proliferates, including one other counter of every current form to any variety of eligible permanents or gamers.
For decks revolving round +1/+1 counters, proliferate, and even planeswalkers, that represents an abundance of worth from a single profitable assault. And for the reason that Tools prices simply two mana to connect, it is simple to maintain the sword swinging away.
The paintings is arguably simply as interesting as the cardboard’s spectacular skills. Whereas 2024’s Additional Life assortment, Pixel Good, embraced the 16-bit period, this 12 months’s installment advances a console technology with chunky, low-polygon character fashions and distinctly late-’90s RPG aesthetics. The outcome appears like one thing that may have occupied a treasured reminiscence card again in 1998.
Given how collectible Magic‘s extra uncommon Secret Lair remedies have turn out to be, this explicit sword appears destined to draw consideration.
Balefire Dragon Is One other Costly Magic Reprint from the Drop
Sword of Reality and Justice may be the proverbial closing boss of this assortment, however Balefire Dragon is hardly a pushover. Initially printed in 2011’s Innistrad, this seven-mana, 6/6 flying Dragon has turn out to be a beloved Commander menace, with extraordinary non-foil copies usually commanding between $15 and $20.
Its capacity is delightfully simple: At any time when Balefire Dragon offers fight injury to a participant, it offers that a lot injury to each creature that participant controls. One profitable assault from an unmodified Balefire Dragon can go away an opponent observing six injury throughout their complete military. Ouch.
Collectively, Sword of Reality and Justice and Balefire Dragon symbolize roughly $45 or extra in current card worth, relying on the printings being in contrast. That already exceeds the $39.99 asking value of the non-foil drop, earlier than accounting for the remaining playing cards.
These embrace Younger Pyromancer, the favored two-mana “spells-matter” creature that produces Elemental tokens each time its controller casts an instantaneous or sorcery, and Huge Rating, a helpful pink instantaneous that converts discarded playing cards into recent attracts and Treasure tokens. Neither is especially costly, however each are eminently playable.
It is one other welcome spherical of reprints from Wizards, which lately introduced the long-overdue return of the roughly $18 Soul Spike after 20 years with out one other printing.
Rise of the Polygons | Additional Life 2026 goes on sale November 16 by means of Magic’s official Secret Lair storefront, with the sale ending November 30 at 1 a.m. PT. Non-foil copies price $39.99, whereas conventional foil variations retail for $49.99.
Collectors attending MagicCon: Atlanta from November 13–15 may even have a chance to buy the gathering early, though portions might be restricted.
The charitable part deserves consideration, too. Half of the net gross sales value, minus third-party transaction charges, will assist Additional Life and Seattle Kids’s Hospital. At MagicCon, Wizards says all proceeds from its Additional Life merchandise and the Rise of the Polygons drop will go towards the trigger.
It is an admirable initiative with some genuinely fascinating reprints, particularly for Commander fanatics. And for anybody who spent their childhood battling suspiciously angular dragons with impossibly outsized swords, the paintings is a slightly charming bonus.
No less than this time, beating the dragon will not require blowing right into a cartridge.