Rise of the Polygons: Is It Worth It?

The Facts

Rise of the Polygons is Secret Lair's drop for Extra Life, the charity Wizards raises money for every year. Last year's was a Play-Doh collaboration. This one picks up from 2024's 16-bit pixel art and moves forward a console generation to blocky polygons. The story runs across the five pieces: a young pyromancer has to level up before taking on the Balefire Dragon.

The online sale is a fixed window, November 16 until 1 a.m. PT on November 30. MagicCon: Atlanta attendees can buy it three days early at the merch booth, while supplies last.

The Cards

Brendan "Sully" Sullivan drew all five as screens from a late-1990s 3D game. Each card has a health bar and a level counter across the top, inventory slots down the side and the rules text in a dialog box. The same red-haired pyromancer appears on four of them. Prices under each card are the cheapest existing non-foil and foil printings, checked November 3, 2026.

• Balefire Dragon Brendan Sullivan · $15.55 · foil $18.26 Card page →
• Big Score Brendan Sullivan · $0.43 · foil $1.28 Card page →
• Young Pyromancer Brendan Sullivan · $0.24 · foil $0.28 Card page →
• Sword of Truth and Justice Brendan Sullivan · $27.86 · foil $37.31 Card page →
• Elemental Token · Brendan Sullivan · not priced

Buy on TCGplayer Card page

Sword of Truth and Justice is the card most decks can use. It costs three to cast and two to equip, gives +2/+2 and protection from white and from blue, and each time the equipped creature deals combat damage to a player you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control and then proliferate. In a deck built on counters, that proliferate grows every counter on your side each turn it connects, which is why it's the most valuable card here. Its four earlier printings are Modern Horizons, Modern Horizons 1 Timeshifts and two Secret Lairs.

Balefire Dragon is a 6/6 flier for seven mana. When it deals combat damage to a player, it deals that much damage to each creature that player controls, so one hit can clear an opponent's board. It's a long-time pick in red dragon decks and has eight earlier printings, the cheapest at $15.55.

Young Pyromancer makes a 1/1 red Elemental token whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, which is what the drop's token is for. Big Score is a four-mana instant: discard a card, draw two and make two Treasures. Both have been reprinted often, and neither costs more than $1.30 in either finish.

What the Cards Are Actually Worth

The four cards cost a little more as singles than the box does, in both finishes. This table prices each card at its cheapest existing printing:

Every figure is the cheapest existing printing of the card, checked November 3, 2026, leaving out the new Secret Lair printings, which have no market yet. That is replacement cost: what you would pay to own these cards another way. It is not what you could sell this drop's copies for, and it's before shipping and tax on either side. Every card has an earlier printing in both finishes, so nothing here is priced at a stand-in. The Elemental token isn't counted in any figure.

Non-foil: two cards carry it

The non-foil box comes to $44.08 against $39.99, which is 1.1 times the price. The top three cards are Sword of Truth and Justice at $27.86, Balefire Dragon at $15.55 and Big Score at $0.43: $43.84, or 99% of the total. Young Pyromancer is the other $0.24. Big Score and Young Pyromancer are both under $2 and add $0.67 together.

If you sold the non-foils yourself, a fair estimate is about $37, after about 15% for fees and shipping, and counting cards under $2 as worth nothing. That's a little less than the box costs.

Foil: the same two cards

The foil box comes to $57.13 against $49.99. The Sword is $37.31 and the Dragon $18.26, which is $55.57 between them (97% of the total), and Big Score and Young Pyromancer add $1.56. Priced as non-foils, the same four cards would be $44.08, so most of the foil's margin is the Sword's foil premium. On the same selling assumptions, the foils would bring an estimated $47.23.

What could move these numbers

Sword of Truth and Justice has four earlier printings and Balefire Dragon has eight, so a fifth and ninth won't change much on their own. The window is two weeks and Wizards hasn't said whether it prints to demand. The prices above are what the cards cost today, not a forecast of where they settle.

Commander Spotlight

Sword of Truth and Justice ↗

The most valuable card in the drop in either finish: $27.86 non-foil and $37.31 foil. Protection from white and from blue, +2/+2, and a +1/+1 counter and a proliferate every time the equipped creature connects with a player.

Where the Money Goes

Half of what you pay online is a donation. Wizards says 50% of the sale price, less third-party transaction fees, goes to Children's Miracle Network through Our Change Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity and donor-advised fund, to support kids and families at Seattle Children's Hospital. On a $39.99 box that's a little under $20, and on a $49.99 foil a little under $25.

Seen that way, the other half buys the cards: about $20 for $44.08 of non-foil singles, or about $25 for $57.13 of foils. At the MagicCon: Atlanta Extra Life booth, Wizards says 100% of the proceeds from the drop and the Extra Life merchandise go to Extra Life, less third-party fees.

The drop is one part of Wizards' Extra Life plans. MTG Arena gets a sleeve bundle with this drop's art (3,000 gems), a second bundle of Anthony Garzonna's Ajani and Chandra sleeves (1,800 gems) and a sticker emote (800 gems), from November 16 to 30, with all proceeds less transaction fees donated. At MagicCon: Atlanta, a Dragon Shield playmat ($25) and sleeves ($20) each donate $10, a $20 donation gets a Loot pin and a $40 donation gets a random Collector Booster.

Is It Worth It?

Buy it if

Skip it if

On today's prices the cards about cover the box, and about half of what you pay is donated. If you play the Sword, this is a good way to get one and give at the same time. The foil clears its price by more, and nearly all of that is the Sword.

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