The 15 Most Valuable Judgment Cards

Seedtime | Art by Rebecca Guay

The 26th Magic: The Gathering expansion, Judgment (JUD) released in 2002 at the tail end of Odyssey block. Following Torment, which printed more black cards than cards of other colors and contained powerful black spells like Cabal Ritual and Insidious Dreams, JUD set out to balance the scales (the set symbol, get it?) with more white and green cards. The consensus is that the set's white and green cards were more powerful than the others, but has that remained the case in 2026 in terms of value? Let's find out!

15. Soulcatchers' Aerie

Market Price: $4.73

You can't really play this in a deck that isn't very Bird-centric, unless you're doing some shenanigans with changelings that are every creature type or with Arcane Adaptation. I'd be interested to see what readers might cook up with that, but in a dedicated Bird deck, in Commander for example, where you can build around Choco, Seeker of Paradise or Kastral, the Windcrested, this looks like a must-answer threat.

Notably, this counts Bird tokens as well as actual creature cards. 1/1 fliers are pretty easy to make in Birds-matter builds, so this can get out of hand really quickly. Its value has surely gotten a shot in the arm from Final Fantasy, which also rejuvenated the entire archetype. Aerie is on Christ Guest's Best Bird Cards list over on EDHREC, so do check that out of this enchantment piques your interest.

14. Genesis

Market Price: $4.86

Genesis does one thing, but it does that very reliably. The graveyard is one of the most common and most powerful themes to build around in MTG, so a card that rewards you every turn for milling it or getting it into the 'yard some other way is always going to retain value. It still sees a reasonable amount of play in the juiced-up Commander format according to EDHREC data, but where it really shines is Premodern. Decks ranging from Survival/Welder to Elves run Genesis, whose value proposition is less easily replaced with the more restrictive card pool.

13. Morality Shift

Market Price: $4.93

This is the latest old-bordered card I'm discovering for the first time, and it sure is a sweet one! You can run this in Commander or another casual format and try to assemble this game-winning combo:

Beyond that, it seems really risky to run shift except in the grindiest of decks that can afford to play something that costs seven mana and that actually puts you behind on cards. This hasn't been reprinted, though, so it retains the value it gained when Syr Konrad, the Grim was first printed in Throne of Eldraine.

12. Burning Wish

Market Price: $5

Undoubtedly the most impactful cycle to come out of JUD, the "wishes" had a profound effect on competitive formats. You could play a consistent, streamlined deck of mana-generators, other combo pieces, and Burning Wish, so you could either find the missing set-up card or your win condition. When your deck is built cohesively, wishes essentially give you access to four copies of the best card in your 75. That's so powerful and the reason why cards in this cycle see competitive play in Legacy and Premodern to this day, especially in "The Epic Storm" decks.

11. Dwarven Bloodboiler

Market Price: $5.62

Look, Dwarves aren't the most supported creature type in MTG, even landing on Bennie Smith's 2025 piece on types crying out for a bone. When you don't have a ton of strong payoffs, the ones that do exist will tend to retain value, in my view. Bloodboiler does have a meaningful impact on combat, so it sees play in Commander Dwarf kindred decks that are most often led by Magda, Brazen Outlaw.

10. Mirari's Wake

Market Price: $6.41

This is our third white and/or green card already, which makes sense, as I explained above. I would venture to say that Mirari's Wake is one of the most iconic cards in Magic: The Gathering's history, both in terms of lore and from a competitive lens. The Mirari was an incredible significant object in MTG lore, having been created by Karn and eventually being reshaped into Memnarch, himself once the overlord of New Phyrexia's earlier incarnation, Mirrodin.

Wow, things change a lot in MTG; what hasn't changed is how powerful the enchantment is in formats like Commander. Seeing play in around 175,000 decks, Wake helps you ramp out threats in big-creature-type decks and enchantment-matters builds alike.

Iconic cards are often collector's items, keeping Wake nice and cozy among JUD's most valuable cards.

9. Cunning Wish

Market Price: $6.80

A wish's value reflects not just its absolute utility and its contributions to deckbuilding, but its tutor targets as well. Burning Wish will forever be bolstered by being able to fetch up Tendrils of Agony and, more recently, Galvanic Relay or Echo of Eons. Cunning Wish, meanwhile, also sees a ton of play in Legacy and Premodern for its ability to find interaction in the sideboard that may not normally be played in the main deck of streamlined Omniscience decks, like Force of Negation, Surgical Extraction, or Consign to Memory.

8. Epic Struggle

Market Price: $7.36

If the set with more black cards had an alternate win condition enchantment in black, then it follows that the white-and-green set should mirror this with its own win con. Mortal Combat and Epic Struggle are essentially two sides of the same coin: one rewards having a full graveyard, while the other, in very green fashion, wins you the game for maintaining a full board for a turn cycle. Nowadays, this sees play as another way for tokens decks in Commander to attack a table. The main beneficiary of Struggle's ability is almost certainly Shroofus Sproutsire, the mono-green token commander that may not have a ton of recourse against a board full of blockers given the lack of additional colors. You can always play Heroic Intervention to help ensure your wide board stays that way long enough to trigger the win.

7. Mental Note

Market Price: $7.83

I've played this in Pauper decks that want to get a ton of spells into the graveyard for cheap Tolarian Terrors and Cryptic Serpents. Critical mass of "cantrips", one-mana spells that draw a card on top of some other minor effect, is absolutely essential, especially when you also run Delver of Secrets, so having four copies of Mental Note matters even with the existence of the strictly better Thought Scour. Besides, redundancy matters in Commander, so getting critical mass there often involves running a bunch of cantrips to make your commander and synergies work.

6. Solitary Confinement

Market Price: $8.04

Confinement is as close to a must-play as you can get for 60-card Enchantress decks, and it can be pretty powerful in Commander as well. Having to discard a card every turn doesn't matter when you're drawing multiple a turn thanks to Sythis, Harvest's Hand, Mesa Enchantress, or Argothian Enchantress.

This is a great enabler for enchantment-based combos as well as a pretty unique effect. You can get bits and pieces of what Confinement does from Ivory Mask, Story Circle, and Energy Field, but there's only one purveyor of this fine package of protection.

5. Filth

Market Price: $8.61

After the wishes, the Incarnation cycle is probably the most notable from JUD. All these cards would prefer to be in your graveyard than on the battlefield, reflecting how Odyssey block implored you to use the 'yard as a resource alongside your hand. These cards were all pretty pushed to help keep that theme front and center. As a consequence, Anger, Wonder, and Brawn all see a lot of play in Commander and have all been reprinted. Filth, meanwhile, has never been reprinted save for an appearance on The List, while still holding its own in that format. The most played cards aren't always the most valuable, but Filth carries the torch for the Incarnations on this list.

4. Balthor the Defiled

Market Price: $10.99

While Balthor surely isn't the first example of a character with two versions across sets reflecting a change in circumstances or alignment, it's still very cool seeing the Stout hero corrupted into a Zombie that pumps Minions instead of Barbarians. I'm sure Commander players wish he just buffed creatures of the same type as he, as we already know that Dwarves have been crying out for more support.

3. Seedtime

Market Price: $12.02

I truly hope that there are green players out there asking their blue counterparts, "Do you know what time it is?" when they put this on the stack after a card draw or counterspell is cast. It's not quite Veil of Summer in the way that it ruins those players' day, but it can promise an even greater upside when you can do a lot with your extra turn. Apart from Mystery Booster 2, Seedtime hasn't been reprinted, so gamers looking to run this in Premodern or Commander will have to fork over upwards of 10 bucks for this powerful punchline.

2. Sylvan Safekeeper

Market Price: $13.53

I happen to play a lot of blue, by the way, but unlike Seedtime, I've actually come up against Safekeeper in Cube and can truly testify to how frustrating it is. In 2026 MTG, you usually only need to burn one extra removal spell to answer protective creatures like Hexing Squelcher and Tam, Mindful First-Year. This one-drop demands that you have two removal spells right away, because your opponent is almost certainly going to toss a land into the bin if it means keeping Safekeeper in play to keep their combos safe.

Notably, this was Olle Råde reward for winning a Magic Invitational. For newer players, it's the same prize extended to Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and Nathan Steuer for their wins, which gave us Formidable Speaker and Duelist of the Mind, respectively.

1. Cabal Therapy

Market Price: $20.39

You're gonna need more than a white and green set to keep safe from the clutches of the Cabal! The ironically named Therapy is among the most effective ways to protect a combo. Why wait with a counterspell to answer their answer when you can simply make sure the way is clear in the first place! You even get to do it a second time if you have a creature to sacrifice. It's a staple in both Legacy and Premodern decks and an essential piece of interaction, so it sits atop this pretty awesome list of cards.

Power Often Costs too High a Price

White and green may have taken up more space in Judgment, but it was still a black card that topped this list, and a Cabal-themed one to boot!

This has been a fun block to cover; Odyssey really pioneered a lot of the graveyard mechanics and effects we may take for granted today. What's in store for us next time? Well, be ready for an absolute Onslaught of listicle goodness!