15 Most Valuable Exodus Cards

Coat of Arms | Illustrated by Scott M. Fischer

The final set from Tempest block was 1998’s Exodus, which concluded the Rath Cycle storyline that had run since the end of the Weatherlight saga. Not only does this set share a name with Bob Marley’s best album as well as one of his best songs, it also boasts a bevy of high-powered cards that have stood the test of time and that have held up value-wise, as well. Let’s dive in.

15. Slaughter

Market Price: $5.42

Much like the most valuable uncommon card from the Stronghold expansion, Constant Mists, Slaughter is home to a free buyback cost (in this case paying four life), which is a pretty sweet trade-off for destroying one of your foes’ best nonblack creatures on demand for .

14. Wall of Nets

Market Price: $6.11

The Wall creature type has long been a classic throughout Magic’s history, with some of the game’s early sets containing a number of intriguing and unusual non-attacking Wall creatures.

Wall of Nets might be one of the best, as it exiles any creature it blocks for good... until it leaves the battlefield, that is. Still, a 0/7 for with defender with high upside is a pretty solid rate, even by the lofty standards of today’s creatures.

13. Price of Progress

Market Price: $6.32

Punishing players for using nonbasic lands is always a fun, niche play, and there may be no better card in Magic history for hurting someone for piling up shocklands, fetchlands, and triomes.

Your foe has 10 nonbasics in play, you say? Boom, they take a smooth 20 damage to the dome. The fact that this card hits all players clearly makes it a Commander favorite, and despite seeing a number of reprints, its original printing retains an above-$6 price tag. A classic card.

12. Ertai, Wizard Adept

Market Price: $7.25

Notable Wizard in Magic lore Ertai has seen a few distinct printings over the years, including as one of the most valuable cards from Planeshift, though his first official card came in this set as Ertai, Wizard Adept.

Much like any good Wizard, he can pack a mean counterspell, and he does so as an activated ability that costs and a tap. Sure, it’s fairly easy to predict and play around, but a no-questions-asked counterspell on a stick is still fairly sweet 27 years after release.

11. Manabond

Market Price: $7.33

A zany mana-ramping card that allows you to toss all your lands into play at the cost of One with Nothing-ing yourself, this low-cost enchantment is fairly easy to abuse so long as you pack plenty of instants or Landfall triggers. Also, it only costs , so not a huge cost up front.

10. Cataclysm

Market Price: $7.76

An extremely flavorful and fun board wipe with terrific artwork from Jim Nelson, this choosy removal spell anchored a number of White Aggro decks during its heyday, especially seeing as it could remove multiple different permanent types for only a small investment of .

9. Culling the Weak

Market Price: $10.92

Wizards of the Coast surely loved a variation on a theme back in Magic’s early days, as this twist on the black mana-ramping classic Dark Ritual entails. The company surely thought: “Hmmm, and extra for only is surely too powerful… how about we make them sacrifice a creature and tack on an extra produced? Yeah, now it’s balanced!”

Of course, that is not the case, and this rarely reprinted instant (originally printed at common) is worth over $10 on the secondary market thanks to the massive influx of mana it provides for an extremely low resources cost.

8. Oath of Druids

Market Price: $15.56

This green enchantment dominated Standard during the peak of its powers, and it remains banned in Legacy as it can cheat monstrous threats into play for free so long as you have less creatures in play than target opponent.

Oath was also banned in Extended when the format existed, and it remains a potent combo piece due to its ability to provide a Show and Tell for each player during their upkeep.

7. Sphere of Resistance

Market Price: $17.48

Perhaps one of the most notable and earliest Stax piece, Sphere of Resistance adds a blanket to all spells cast for all players; no questions asked, no way to get around it.

Though this artifact was reprinted recently in a Secret Lair Drop, this version of this two-mana artifact retains a hefty price point due to the original vintage-style frame as well as tremendous Doug Chaffee artwork that looks like it’s straight out of the Alien franchise.

6. Coat of Arms

Market Price: $24.63

For you kindred-heads out there, Coat of Arms might be the single best piece of hardware to pack if you’re looking to beef up your armies. While the casting cost is somewhat prohibitive, but if you have, say, nine Slivers in play, or, I don’t know, 17 Elves, they’ll get +8/+8 and +16/+16, respectively… not bad for you Timmys and Tammys out there!

5. Mind Over Matter

Market Price: $37.99

An efficient and easily abusable combo-enabler as well as one of the few cards, and the second ever, with in its mana cost, Mind Over Matter is a classic card with iconic artwork of Urza by Keith Parkinson.

As you would expect, this blue enchantment goes infinite with more or less any permanent that boasts a card-drawing activated ability, with a few notable examples below. A memorable and brilliant card that is unlikely to ever be reprinted, hence its over-$40 price tag.

4. Hatred

Market Price: $45.69

While might seem like an extremely over-the-top mana cost for a meager pump spell, when you realize that you can pay any amount of life to boost your creature’s power by that much, you start to understand the sheer power of this black instant.

This instant helped power the “Suicide Black” archetype from this era of Magic, as pairing this with an evasive, low-cost creature, like Skittering Skirge, could spell doom for foes with relative ease.

3. Recurring Nightmare

Market Price: $70.09

One of the two cards that undergirded the overwhelmingly dominant “Recurring Survival” archetype in Standard at the time of its release, Recurring Nightmare allows you to repeatedly recur a creature from your graveyard by sacrificing another creature and returning Nightmare to your hand.

As you can probably see, this classic permanent pairs absolutely beautifully with the next card on our list…

2. Survival of the Fittest

Market Price: $255.29

Featuring some of the best Pete Venters artwork ever, this two-mana green enchantment is one of the best green tutor spells ever, and the fact that it can be repeatedly activated for only at any time, make it an extremely useful and eminently powerful permanent.

While a $250ish price tag is fairly impressive on its own, the only other reprint of Survival was as a Judge Gift Card from 2009, which sits at a price point of $1,275.74 – a pretty penny.

1. City of Traitors

Market Price: $358.53

As we’ve seen time and time again, one-off nonbasic lands retain a tremendous cachet in terms of value when it comes to vintage Magic sets. Exodus boasts one of the best in City of Traitors, as it delivers a painless Ancient Tomb, though you have to sacrifice it if you play another land.

Of course, this City's value is mostly driven by its presence in the Legacy format, where the difference between popping off on turn and turn two can be the difference between winning and losing. Either way, this is a notable piece for collectors and Legacy format fans alike.

“Exodus… Movement of Magic People”

The end of the Tempest block saw a bunch of notable cards released, many of which boast a truly impressive price tag. But what’s next You’ll have to join us in the next edition to find out. Thanks for reading, and happy collecting!