Battlebond is the newest Magic supplementary expansion and it has a lot of us wondering -- Is this what a Masters set is supposed to look like? The amount of valuable cards that are stocked in the rare slot is pretty impressive and there are even a few chase mythics to round out the feel goods of opening a pack. While most of the cards in this set aren't really good for tournament Magic, there are still a few notable reprints to be cognizant of.
One of the headlining cards here is True-Name Nemesis. It's a staple of Legacy Blue decks and until now has only had a single printing in Commander 2013. Although it's not particularly expensive this time around (it's preordering for $18 as I'm writing this) the important thing to be aware of is that this will be the only way to obtain them in foil. Joining this in the "first time foil" category is Oreskos Explorer (you can click the link through on this one. I won't blame you) and Veteran Explorer which were previously only printed in Mirage or a Commander deck.
Other than first time foils, a lot of the hype in this set seems to be on the several rares that far exceed the price of a booster pack. I would take a look at the reprints in Conspiracy: Take the Crown for a look at where they could end up after a reprint. A lot of the reprints in that set were high value and high demand cards that have leveled out since their price decrease. I think Battlebond reprints will end up 10-15% lower because this set doesn't really have a lot of the same problems that hurt the value of reprints in Conspiracy sets. There aren't a bunch of "unplayable" cards for Constructed in this set. Without the draft matters cards and conspiracy cards there are a lot more things that people will actually want. Given the fact that a lot of these new cards appeal to Commander players means that most of them will not be true bulk. This will help balance out the set and you don't get a price distribution like Conspiracy: Take the Crown where there are a 10-12 cards worth more than $1 and the rest sub $1. Much like a lot of the cards in Masters 25, many of these reprints were quite expensive due to their rarity and not their play. Right now I'd expect Greater Good, Diabolic Intent, Vigor, and Sower of Temptation to continue to decrease as they're not in nearly as many decks as Seedborn Muse (the premier rare) according to EDHRec.com.
The final thing we need to talk about is all of the new cards! There are some that have people really hyped like Arena Rector but I honestly don't expect any of them to make a huge splash. What I am expecting is some pretty absurdly priced foils. Conspiracy: Take the Crown has some extremely large multipliers on foil mythics that I am expecting to also see here. Selvala, Heart of the Wild is about $20-25 for a nonfoil but over $100 for a foil. You can see similar jumps with Kaya, Ghost Assassin (which is an alternate art foil), Leovold, Emissary of Trest (which isn't even Commander legal!), and Expropriate. Turns out new cards in foil are quite expensive when they come from supplementary booster sets.
There is also one very unique mechanic in this set called "Partners with" that takes some explaining. Much like the previous collation tricks used in Unstable and Dominaria, there is something odd about partner cards. They will always appear as a pair in the same booster pack. This means if you open one you will always open both so for all intents and purposes they're the same rarity as a single rare, not two rares (or mythics or uncommons). When one of these cards appears in a pack it will not change the total number of cards in the pack but it will replace an uncommon. This means packs that include a partner card will have 2 mythics or rares and 2 uncommons or 1 rare and 3 uncommons (2 of which are partners). Given how much synergy there is between the partners, it's unlikely that one of them becomes significantly more expensive than the other since they are always in the same pack together. This is also true for foils! When a pack contains a foil partner card it will replace a common (like a foil normally would) and an uncommon (like non-foil partner card would). If you want any clarity or sources for this information, it can all be found on Battlebond designer, Gavin Verhey's twitter.
Bringing it all together, I think Battlebond is an exceptionally well stocked set with a ton of reprints and new cards to get players excited to open it. I think it will do some great things to the price of older under printed Commander staples as well as have some hidden gems. I think people really underestimate the amount of politicking you can do with the friend or foe cards and those will likely have the steepest increases long term.
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