The unique Magic: The Gathering card Booster Tutor has exploded in price over the past few days. The cheapest variant, from the silver-bordered reprint set Unsanctioned, has risen by 460%. On Christmas Day, it cost a mere $1.40, but two weeks later that price has jumped to $7.60.
Other variants have become even costlier, with the older Unhinged copies going from $2.50 to $11.50 in the same timespan. Meanwhile, a DCI promo version of the card has tripled in value, just passing the $25 mark.
Released in the MTG set Unhinged in 2004, Booster Tutor is a chaotic card that could only have come out in a joke-filled unset. This one mana instant has its caster open up a sealed pack of their choice, select one card from it, and add it to their hand.
Obviously, this would be more annoying than stickers in a competitive scenario, but it has the potential to be a lot of fun in casual games or cube drafts. Or you can while away precious hours arguing about which pack is best to open: are you better off picking something recent like Modern Horizons 3 or a Masters set, or going all the way back to the classics?
As you probably have guessed, it’s not a shift in the meta that’s caused Booster Tutor to spike: the card isn’t legal in any sanctioned MTG formats, after all. Instead, it’s a recent video by Magic: The Gathering YouTuber Tolarian Community College (a.k.a. The Professor) which has set this card ratcheting up in value.
An episode of TCC’s Shuffle Up & Play series released December 23, 2024 saw The Professor and guests play a version of Commander with an interesting twist. Alongside the regular MTG commanders in their command zone, each player also had a copy of Booster Tutor.
This video, in which the players got to crack a pack every other turn, to reveal the (mostly terrible) cards within, will have brought many new fans’ attention to the card. Right now, it has over 240,000 views, so it’s easy to see why it’s had an impact on card price. Presumably, fans have snapped up singles in the hopes of playing their own version of Booster Tutor Commander. You need four copies per pod, which is likely to have depleted reserves pretty swiftly.
This is not the first time this particular content creator has inadvertently influenced card prices by introducing players to a fun gimmick. In mid-2024 we saw Dandân rising in price, after The Professor played this very strange game mode on his channel.
Interestingly, Unsanctioned versions of Booster Tutor have now come down a little, after they peaked at close to $10 on December 28. If you own copies and are looking to sell into the hype, we’d guess the sooner the better.
If you like TCG price stories, you might want to look at the oddities in our most expensive MTG cards list. But it must be admitted, these pale in comparison to the true marvels that make up the most expensive Pokémon cards.
Source: Wargamer
