The Reprint Cliff: how much a Magic card loses from its original printing to its cheapest reprint
Every reprint set, Commander precon and Secret Lair re-opens the same argument: does reprinting tank a card's value? We took 34 of Magic's most-reprinted staples and compared each card's original printing to its cheapest printing today. The cliff is real — and steep.
The steepest cliffs
Drop from each card's original printing to its cheapest printing today, by nonfoil Scryfall USD.
Top 14 by drop. The full set of 34 is in the table below.
Same card, a fraction of the price
The original printings are collector chase cards. The cheapest reprints are the exact same playable card — for pocket change.
Every staple, by the numbers
| Card | Original | Cheapest | Drop | Prints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sol Ring | $870 | $1.17 | 99%+ | 92 |
| Llanowar Elves | $177 | $0.29 | 99%+ | 35 |
| Counterspell | $549 | $2.03 | 99%+ | 49 |
| Lightning Bolt | $620 | $0.86 | 99%+ | 43 |
| Swords to Plowshares | $550 | $1.20 | 99%+ | 64 |
| Demonic Tutor | $647 | $15 | 98% | 17 |
| Naturalize | $2.14 | $0.04 | 98% | 21 |
| Wrath of God | $99 | $3.22 | 97% | 23 |
| Fellwar Stone | $21 | $0.69 | 97% | 34 |
| Birds of Paradise | $275 | $10 | 96% | 32 |
| Mind Stone | $2.11 | $0.26 | 88% | 35 |
| Solemn Simulacrum | $1.48 | $0.23 | 84% | 45 |
| Phyrexian Arena | $21 | $3.52 | 83% | 17 |
| Chaos Warp | $1.56 | $0.28 | 82% | 43 |
| Beast Within | $2.07 | $0.48 | 77% | 37 |
| Day of Judgment | $2.23 | $0.57 | 74% | 9 |
| Command Tower | $0.90 | $0.26 | 71% | 86 |
| Eternal Witness | $3.78 | $1.16 | 69% | 20 |
| Brainstorm | $2.28 | $0.73 | 68% | 39 |
| Rampant Growth | $0.68 | $0.25 | 63% | 41 |
| Anguished Unmaking | $2.63 | $1.07 | 59% | 12 |
| Krosan Grip | $1.83 | $0.78 | 57% | 11 |
| Path to Exile | $2.48 | $1.08 | 56% | 45 |
| Acidic Slime | $0.27 | $0.13 | 52% | 22 |
| Arcane Signet | $0.76 | $0.40 | 47% | 69 |
| Cultivate | $0.60 | $0.34 | 43% | 46 |
| Reliquary Tower | $4.72 | $2.72 | 42% | 34 |
| Negate | $0.27 | $0.16 | 41% | 28 |
| Burnished Hart | $0.19 | $0.13 | 32% | 21 |
| Sakura-Tribe Elder | $0.38 | $0.27 | 29% | 25 |
| Farseek | $0.73 | $0.55 | 25% | 29 |
| Kodama's Reach | $1.81 | $1.42 | 22% | 26 |
| Skullclamp | $6.82 | $5.60 | 18% | 23 |
| Cyclonic Rift | $31 | $28 | 9% | 12 |
Of the 36 staples we checked, 2 (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study) had no cliff — their original printing is also their cheapest priced copy — and aren't counted above.
What resets the floor
The cheapest printings cluster in recent Commander and Universes Beyond products — Secrets of Strixhaven Commander, Final Fantasy Commander, Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander. Modern bulk-reprint sets, not main expansions, are what drag a staple's playable price to the floor.
Method & sources
- For each card we pulled every printing with its nonfoil USD price via the open Scryfall API (
unique=prints), excluding printings with no price. - Original = the earliest-released printing that has a price; cheapest = the lowest-priced printing today; drop = (original − cheapest) ÷ original. We report the median across 34 cards.
- The five steepest read “99%+”; the underlying figures are 99.x% (e.g. Sol Ring 99.9%) — we never display a literal 100%.
- This metric blends an original printing's current collector price with the reprint-driven floor, so it isn't a controlled measure of reprint impact alone. Original printing's current price vs the cheapest reprint, per nonfoil Scryfall USD. Valued 2026-06-26.
- Reference estimates, not sold records; vintage (Alpha/Beta/Unlimited) prices are thin and noisier; foils excluded. TOS-clean aggregate stats — reproducible from the open API, never scraped, never invented.
FAQ
Does reprinting a Magic card lower its value?
For heavily-reprinted staples, yes — sharply. Across 34 icons, the median card's cheapest printing trades about 70% below its original printing, and 10 of them (29%) are down 90%+. The chase is the original printing; the cheapest reprint is the commodity floor.
What's the biggest reprint cliff?
Sol Ring: a Beta copy carries a $870 reference price, while its cheapest modern reprint is $1.17 — you can play the exact same card for pocket change. Counterspell, Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshares and Llanowar Elves show the same near-total collapse from their Alpha/Beta originals to today's reprints.
So is reprinting always bad for a card's price?
Not always. Of the 36 staples we checked, 2 (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study) had no cliff at all — their original printing is also their cheapest priced copy. And a card's original Alpha/Beta printing keeps its collector premium; it's the *playable floor* that reprints crush. Note this metric compares an original printing's current price to the cheapest reprint, so it blends original-printing scarcity with reprint-driven supply.
Where does the data come from, and is it reliable?
Every printing's nonfoil USD price via the open Scryfall API; "original" is each card's earliest printing that has a price, "cheapest" is the lowest-priced printing. Original printing's current price vs the cheapest reprint, per nonfoil Scryfall USD, valued 2026-06-26. These are reference estimates, not sold records; very old (Alpha/Beta/Unlimited) prices are thin and noisier, and foils are excluded. We never scrape and never invent a number — the figures are reproducible from the open API.
Curious what your Magic cards — original printings or reprints — are worth?
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Source: <a href="https://foilio.net/studies/mtg-reprint-cliff?utm_source=share&utm_medium=study_embed&utm_campaign=viral">The Reprint Cliff: how much a Magic card loses from its original printing to its cheapest reprint — Foilio</a> · data CC BY 4.0
</p>Foilio (2026-06-26). The Reprint Cliff: how much a Magic card loses from its original printing to its cheapest reprint. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/mtg-reprint-cliff