Gavin Verhey,  Senior Magic Designer and Writer at Wizards of the Coast, posted a picture of a Jeweled Lotus card on his Twitter account, and the Commander player base lost its collective mind. The Jeweled Lotus is literally a "Black Lotus to cast Commanders" that also features stunning artwork by Alayna Danner. The card is already listed for preorder on TCGplayer at near mint asking price of $999.99 for the foil version, and  the regular version is selling on various EBay preorders for between $120 to $199 (prices at time of publication).

The Jeweled Lotus's pending release has a few ramifications where retailers are concerned. On the positive side, cracking packs of Commander Legends just became a lot more attractive to customers because the Jeweled Lotus is a powerful, but attainable in the Mythic rare slot. Prior to the reveal, spoilers for Commander Legends weren't all that earth-shattering, but this chase card makes the set much more desirable to casual players and collectors.

The printing of the Jeweled Lotus also walks a fine line where it comes to WotC Reserved List reprint policy. Verhey's comments on the card were as follows:

"Black Lotus for your Commander. Need I say more?"

This comment all but overtly states that the intention of this card's design was to mimic the function of a Reserved List card for a specific tournament format without actually reprinting the Black Lotus itself. That is a dangerous precedence to set where it comes to the protecting the value of Reserved List cards, some of which are going for thousands of dollars, because it comes incredibly close to reprinting their abilities without actually reprinting the cards themselves. This design practice could negatively impact the value of some Reserved List cards, by detracting from the uniqueness of their function, thus costing retailers and resellers who carry these high-end singles some profits in sales.

Commander Legends is scheduled to hit the streets on November 20 (see "Wizards of Coast Pushes Back Entire Launch Schedule For 'Magic the Gathering: Commander Legends'").  

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