Pioneer Drip From Dominaria Remastered
rose-emoji ranks the Pioneer-playable alternate art cards set to release with Dominaria Remastered on January 13.
Lost in Endless Hype
While Dominaria Remastered was originally announced in August, any second thought about it seems to have been quickly swallowed up by new set releases, the Magic 30 announcements and even Jumpstart 2022, the Remastered set is set to release in just a couple weeks on January 13 with Collector Boosters, Draft Boosters and boxes for the same.
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For Pioneer players, the set release will likely mean price drops on some of the Pioneer-legal cards included in the Remastered set (though there aren’t many valuable Pioneer-legal cards in Dominaria Remastered to pick through) or something fun to draft while chasing high-value cards like Force of Will, Vampiric Tutor, Sylvan Library, Enlightened Tutor, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Urza, Lord High Artificer, there’s a fair amount of drip to grab from the set for Pioneer players (spoiler alert: it’s almost all retro frame reprints). Here it is, ranked!
#5 Lyra Dawnbringer
Retro Frame ($10) and Borderless ($19)
While Lyra Dawnbringer isn’t seeing a ton of play in Pioneer, it sees action as a one-of in the sideboards of certain Azorius Control builds. While nearly interchangeable with Baneslayer Angel, Lyra provides an exclusive boost to surrounding angels, such as ones created by Starnheim Unleashed or Emeria’s Call.
Anyway, Dominaria Remastered brings us a retro frame version with the original Chris Rahn card art (around $10 presale) and a borderless version featuring new art by Donato Giancola (around $19 presale). If I needed four of them, this might be a pass from me, but as a one-of, I’ll probably try to pick up a copy of the retro frame version.
#4 Duress
Retro Frame ($.80)
While we already had pretty good options when it came to Duress art (between the Japanese Mystical Archives Version and the Urza’s Sage retro frame version), it doesn’t hurt to have another choice of art in the old border, and Dominaria Remastered gives us Stephen Belledin’s art we first saw in M10 and most recently in M21 and gives it the retro frame treatment. At less than a dollar, this will be an easy pickup for me.
#3 Enemy Check Lands
Retro Frame ($5.75)
Outside of a few cases (Niv to Light, Enigmatic Incarnation, Keruga Fires, Yorion decks) the check lands as a whole see play as a one or two-of in most decks nowadays, but the enemy checklands tend to see even less play. While Glacial Fortress is a staple for Azorius Control, there are few decks running Isolated Chapel, Woodland Cemetery, Hinterland Harbor or even Sulfur Falls as of writing.
Still, for those that do run them, the new retro frame prints are only a few cents more than their regular printing counterparts in presale, and I’ll be picking up a couple Isolated Chapels for Esper Yorion Doom Foretold (what year is it?).
#2 Damping Sphere
Retro Frame ($2.30)
I am pretty excited for a retro frame Damping Sphere, actually. The Brothers’ War brought us a fair amount of retro frame Karn wishboard artifacts, and this printing brings me closer to my dream of having a fully old border Karn wishboard someday (ideally before Karn is banned).
Damping Sphere is high on this list because everyone can (and almost everyone does) play it sideboard. It’s an easy pickup at a couple of dollars, and is one of the few I might preorder rather than wait out for a price drop.
#1 Absorb
Retro Frame ($3) and Borderless ($3)
We already had this retro frame printing of Absorb, but it could be nice to see a bit of a price drop on it. What Dominaria Remastered brings Azorius Control mages, though, is a beautiful borderless version by Randy Gallegos at a pre-sale price of $3.
Bonus: Basic Lands
Retro Frame (~$2.50)
Dominaria Remastered includes a variety of retro frame basic lands from sets like Portal, Onslaught and Urza’s Saga, which will be the first time in almost 20 years where we will have the ability to pull retro frame basic lands from a draft set.
What this means for Pioneer players is near mint condition retro frame basics, something very difficult to come by in a lot of cases without paying a pretty penny.
