With any luck, the player base will fall in love with Magic: The Gathering's latest set, Foundations. If not, I have some bad news: this set will be around for a long time because Wizards of the Coast has declared that cards in this set will be Standard legal for at least five years!

Buckle in. We've got a long road ahead with the Core Set-like set that is Foundations. It remains to be seen how much of this flagship product gets printed, but suffice to say any valuable cards opened from the set has the potential to remain relevant for a long time. This trend will pique the interest of many players looking to squeeze their collection for a little value now and again.

With this backdrop, what are the most valuable and exciting cards you can open at your local FNM / booster draft? I'll break down the top cards worth opening, along with a few honorable mentions worth keeping an eye out for.

What's New?

According to retail prices, the most valuable (non-foil, non-special printing) card you can open day one of Foundation's release is everyone's favorite carrot top vampire, Bloodthirsty Conqueror.

If I look closely at Dmitry Burmak's art, I swear I can see darker color at this guy's hair roots. Do you think he's a natural red-head? Either way, he's a natural game-ender! The 5/5 flying and deathtouch stat line is impressive enough for just 5 mana, but his second ability screams ''combo.'' Not only does this go infinite with the likes of Sanguine Bond in Commander, it also can instantly win you games in Limited!

Marauding Blight-Priest never seemed so powerful.

Such power and synergy fuels this card's $25ish price point, with retail numbers stretching into the low $30's, at least for the time being. Time will tell where its final price lands, but regardless this will be the card to open from packs of Foundations this month.

Speaking of powerful creatures, another two newcomers you'll want to open are Sire of Seven Deaths and Twinflame Tyrant.

The mythic rare Eldrazi currently retails for around $30, and is the second most valuable card from Foundations. Twinflame Tyrant, an impressive dragon that has already singlehandedly crushed my hopes and dreams in a round of Limited, boasts a near-$20 price tag. Both of these creatures are brand new to Magic and both boast powerful abilities. Sire of Seven Deaths has a seven-theme going: 7 mana, 7/7 stats, and seven abilities. Twinflame Tyrant isn't as flashy, but doubling all damage to your opponent and their permanents makes for quite the scary card!

Speaking of scary dragons, have you seen Rite of the Dragoncaller?

This enchantment screams ''build around me in Commander.'' I'm not sure how powerful the mythic rare enchantment will be, but it's popular enough at the moment to boast a reasonable $8 retail price. Something tells me this card isn't as flashy as the aforementioned creatures, but players love their dragons and it wouldn't surprise me to see this remain popular for years to come.

The same can be said about Niv-Mizzet, Visionary.

A new take on a classic creature, this iteration of Niv-Mizzet fuels your hand as long as you're dealing noncombat damage to your opponent. I don't believe this iteration on Niv-Mizzet is as powerful as some previous versions of the creature, but that isn't keeping the Dragon Wizard's price down all that much. This is another $7ish card you can open from a booster pack of Foundations.

The last new cards I want to acknowledge are not creatures and aren't related to dragons. One is a Planeswalker and one is a Sorcery: Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator and Blasphemous Edict.

These cards both retail for around $7, and are cards I'd be thrilled to open from any Foundations Play Booster. Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator is the fifth incarnation of the Kaito Planeswalker, and could open up some interesting build-around opportunities. Blasphemous Edict is creative in flavor, but its ability is not unfamiliar: destroy all creatures. Actually, it goes one step further because it gets around indestructible and Hexproof abilities, forcing players to sacrifice all their creatures. Well, thirteen creatures of their choice. Same difference?

Exciting Returns

There are a handful of other new cards worth the price of a Play Booster, but those listed above highlight the most exciting. These aren't the only valuable cards you'll want to crack open, however. It turns out Foundations is a set split roughly half-way between new cards and reprints, and there are some impressive reprints in the set that would be equally exciting to open.

By far the best (read: most valuable) reprint card you can open in Foundations is Doubling Season. That's right, it's back and just as exciting to build around in Commander as ever before.

I suspect its price will drop lower as more copies enter the market, but this enchantment is always good for $20 or more despite all its reprints. The version in Foundations uses Chuck Lukacs' art, which first appeared as a Judge Foil in 2011 and then returned in Modern Masters, 2013.

Not interested in doubling your tokens or counters? Perhaps you'd prefer something more aggressive, such as doubling your combat phases? If that's more your speed, then I have the reprint for you:

That's right, everyone's favorite Boros Angel, Aurelia, the Warleader, is back! If you can get past the prohibitive mana cost, Aurelia is sure to break games wide open with her keyword abilities and her second combat capability. Previous printings of this card were flirting with a $10 price tag. This new reprint from Foundations is currently retailing for a bit less. Still, it's definitely a great card to pull from your next Draft!

Three more reprints merit a shout-out here: Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Darksteel Colossus, and Omniscience.

Three powerful mythic rares, all worth about as much as a FoundationsPlay Booster. We've seen each of these cards printed across a handful of sets and styles over the years, but that doesn't detract from their popularity. I don't know if these cards will shine in Standard. I do know that they've been powerful cards in sixty card formats in years past, and I'm excited to see what doors they open during their extended stay in Standard this time. Who knows what other cards Wizards of the Coast will print in the coming five or more years that will synergize with these bangers?

Honorable Mentions

There are two categories of cards I want to give honorable mention to before I wrap up this week's Foundations article.

First, it's worth shouting out the valuable commons and uncommons in this set. Opening one of these cards won't feel like ''winning,'' but you should be aware that they are definitely worth placing aside for buylisting or trading at your LGS.

First and foremost, there's everyone's favorite Rabbit buildaround, Hare Apparent.

Cards like these, that let you play as many copies as you want in a deck, are often worth a couple bucks even when printed at common or uncommon. Hare Apparent is no exception, and this guy's retail price is still around $5, higher than most rares in the set! If you see these in a booster draft, make note--it wont win you games, but it will help subsidize your entry coast a decent amount.

The other two cards you'll definitely want to pull aside for the trade binder are Boltwave and Swiftfoot Boots. These also retail for a couple bucks, and can readily be buylisted for at least a dollar.

The other category of cards I want to mention are the ones you can open from Collector Booster Packs. I'm talking about all the fancy alternate art, borderless, fractured foil kind of cards. There are so many variants that it could merit a whole separate article on the subject. In the interest of time, I'll just acknowledge a couple here.

If you open a Fracture Foil card, it's probably worth a good bit of money. Fracture Foil Doubling Season currently sells for over $300. Llanowar Elves approaches that mark as well. Twinflame Tyrant, Herald of Eternal Dawn, and Bloodthirsty Conqueror Fracture Foils are also in the $200 range.

I love the anime style artwork, but the foiling effect isn't for me. However, these clearly have a following to demand such high price points.

Lastly, while not Fracture Foils, the borderless printings of Sire of Seven Deaths, Niv-Mizzet, Visionary, and Liliana, Dreadhorde General all sell for around $100 if you're lucky enough to open one.

Wrapping It Up

Foundations may ''just be a Core Set'' when you boil it down, but that doesn't make it less interesting from a value standpoint. Like any set, this one contains a bunch of duds. This is balanced out by the fact that there are some major hits at the top end! Most are at mythic rarity, but there are a couple regular rares whose value justifies the price of a Play Booster.

I have no crystal ball to predict the future, but this set will become an interesting value experiment. I say this because it's the first set ever that will be Standard legal for over five years! If Wizards of the Coast continues to print Foundations throughout its entire life in Standard, then I could see prices floundering. If, on the other hand, players stop cracking Foundations packs two years in and hobby shops stop selling them, some of the more desirable singles from this set could become quite hard to find. We'll have to watch closely to see how things unfold.

In the meantime, let's appreciate the set for the valuable cards it currently has--especially those Fractured Foils and Borderless variants. May all of your Collector Booster Packs contain such high-dollar cards!