This Old MTG Card Just Exploded 1,983% Thanks to Avatar - And Lorwyn Can Push It Even Higher

With that in mind Magic: The Gathering has a list of cards going back over 30 years, it's quite often that some of them feel underpowered or get overlooked for long periods of time, until a new combo or deck archetype comes out that makes them valuable. When new sets are released, it's quite common for older cards to increase in value and suddenly reach unprecedented heights. Magic: The Gatherings Avatar set already did this for several cards, like Fist of Suns greatly increased in price when Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements was revealed, because they combo in a way that makes whatever spell you cast free.

Powerful interactions are the name of the game MTGand since Avatar is a pretty big set with an eternal counterpart from Jumpstart Boosters, there's a lot of potential for some incredible combos. The most expensive Avatar cards in MTG Obviously include prime combo pieces like Badgermole Cub and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, but fans were quick to notice some sleeper hits among the many new Ally-written cards. Not only are Allied decks getting a lot of love from Avatar, but Zendikar created a card called Sea Gate Loremaster, which went from $0.48 to $10, and its journey may not end here, thanks to the upcoming Lorwyn Eclipsed set.

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Why 2 Magic: The Gathering Cards are increasing in price because of Avatar

Magic: The Gathering players looking to build a deck using the new Avatar: The Last Airbender card may have to pay over $20 for two key cards.

MTG's new Allies pack in Avatar takes an old card from $0.50 to $10

Sea Gate Loremaster is a merfolk sorcerer ally creature that costs 4 generic and 1 blue for a 1/3 body, which is far from good. However, it can be tapped to let you draw a card for every ally you have in play, including yourself. As such, in the right deck, a single copy of Sea Gate Loremaster can draw you quite a few cards, and the Avatar set makes this possible with a total of 115 allied cards out of a total of 211 in the game. Retract engines MTG are extremely valuable, and the Sea Gate Loremaster is an interesting, gimmicky one.

Why Sea Gate Loremaster is OP in Ally Decks

This card can provide very powerful combos with some new tools from the Avatar set, such as MTGKatara, the Fearless or Great Arbitrage Wizard. The former is a legendary creature that costs Bant to cast for a 3/3, and it lets you trigger the ability of ally cards you control twice, meaning Sea Gate Loremaster can draw you twice as many cards as it normally would. Great Divide Guide is another powerful combo piece, as it allows you to tap any ally card you have on the field to generate a mana in any suit, which can provide incredible ramp in low-cost creature decks, and then cast Sea Gate Loremaster early or for free.

With other powerful cards like Aang, at the Crossroads or Katara, Waterbending Master, all of which are allied creatures, Sea Gate Loremaster will let you have a field day in Eternal format, and its price increase makes perfect sense. There's more to it though, as this old card is also a merfolk, and it's an important tribal and creature type in Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Magic: The Gathering's Lorwyn Eclipsed could make the Sea Gate Loremaster Spike even longer

The original Lorwyn block was made of four sets: Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide. These had a total of 56 merfolk-related cards, broken down as follows:

Lorwyn – 24 in total
- 20 creatures (mostly blue, white or blue/white merfolk)
- 2 spells
- 1 country
- 1 enchantment
Morning time – 8 in total
- 8 creatures (blue and white merfolk)
Shadowmoor – 15 in total
- 15 creatures (mostly blue and blue/black merfolk)
Eventide – 9 in total
- 9 creatures (mostly blue and blue/green merfolk)

There is also a confirmed seafaring i MTGs Lorwyn Eclipsed set. This is a double sided card called Sygg, Wanderwine Wisdom // Sygg, Wanderbrine Shield. The set also has a confirmed elemental-type kinship moment, so more merfolk cards are basically guaranteed.

Interestingly, there are 306 merfolk cards in the game, and 60 of them mention “merfolk” in their text. Several of these support multifolk creatures and strategies in general, such as Aquatic Incursion, Judge of Currents, Svyleun of Sea and Sky, and Vodalian Wave-Knight. These can all be powerful in a merfolk themed Commander deck MTGand in some cases a hybrid merfolk/ally deck is also possible.

MTG's Merfolk cards could be an ace up Lorwyn Eclipsed's sleeve

In fact, there are four more cards in the game with this subtype combination. They are:

Coral Helm Guide
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
Seascape Aerialist
Umara Entgler

Of these, only Seascape Aerialist has synergies with other allied cards, giving all allied creatures you control flying until end of turn whenever it or another ally enters the field. Still, Pandora's Box has been opened with Avatar containing over 50% of the game's entire pool of allied cards. Since Lorwyn Eclipsed is one of the most hyped MTG set from 2026, it is likely that more powerful merfolk cards will be added, possibly taking Sea Gate Loremaster to a whole new level.