Last updated on March 14, 2024

Mana Vault (Kaladesh Inventions) - Illustration by Kirsten Zirngibl

Mana Vault (Kaladesh Inventions) | Illustration by Kirsten Zirngibl

There was a time long ago, before the advent of five different card frames/arts in each set, we were graced with the first Masterpiece Series cards. Coming hot off the heels of the massive success that was the Zendikar Expeditions, Kaladesh Inventions was the first official set of Masterpieces, a special printing of cards that featured a completely new art style along with being themed reprints of iconic cards.

Inventions were a cycle of cards printed in Kaladesh and Aether Revolt that were all themed around powerful or iconic artifacts from Magic’s history. They’re a set of foil cards that feature a unique gold frame, alternate art, and a special set symbol.

Wizards unfortunately pulled an Icarus and flew too close to the sun with this concept, leading us to the myriad of products we now have to navigate for premium foils. But more on that later. For now, let’s jump right into these inventions!

How Many Inventions Are There?

Kaladesh brought us the first 30 Inventions followed by the remaining 24 that came with Aether Revolt, the second set of the Kaladesh block.

Kaladesh Inventions Card Gallery and List

Kaladesh

Aether Revolt

Where Can You Get Kaladesh Inventions?

Sword of Feast and Famine (Double Masters) - Illustration by Thomas M. Baxa

Sword of Feast and Famine (Double Masters) | Illustration by Thomas M. Baxa

The easiest way to get Kaladesh Inventions or other Masterpiece cards is simply by buying singles. Whether you prefer TCGPlayer, CoolStuffInc, CardKingdom, or your local game store, you’ll probably find some inventions lying around. You can also try buying booster packs or boxes of the set if you're feeling lucky.

Why Are Inventions So Expensive?

Anytime Wizards prints a scarce, premium product in some shape or form, the potential for the prices to skyrocket is pretty high. Although Kaladesh was a pretty well-received set when it was in Standard, it’s been out of print for quite some time which can lead to the prices for singles (including Inventions) being pretty high. And since these are premium cards that only come out of one specific product, there aren't a lot of them in the market.

What Are the Odds of Getting One?

It's extremely difficult to pull a Kaladesh Invention from a booster pack. They’re in a special rarity slot above mythic rare but aren’t as rare as a foil mythics. According to Wizards of the Coast, the odds of pulling one is 1 out of every 144 packs or 1 out of every 4 booster boxes.

How Do the Chances Compare to Pulling a Zendikar Expedition?

Ornithopter (Aether Revolt) | Illustration by Mathias Kollros

There isn’t really any info from Wizards that shows the actual odds of pulling a Zendikar Expedition.

From what players have gathered online thanks to the most powerful form of magic (mathematics), it looks like that the odds of pulling an expedition is about 1 out of every 432 packs or about 1 out of every 12 boxes which is a lot lower than Inventions. Just remember that these aren’t official statistics.

What's the Difference Between an Invention and a Masterpiece?

Absolutely nothing! Masterpieces are the name of the type of card that Inventions belong to. The Zendikar Expeditions, Amonkhet Invocations, and Kaladesh Inventions are all Masterpiece sets. Cards that are in the Mystical Archive from Strixhaven, as a separate example, are not Masterpieces and are their own type of card, though they are similar.

Are Masterpiece Series Cards Like This Legal?

Platinum Angel | Illustration by Brom

Platinum Angel (Mirrodin) | Illustration by Brom

Well, yes and no. The rulings for these cards being legal depends on the format you're playing in.

If you’re playing Draft or Sealed and you manage to open a Masterpiece card, it’s completely legal to use in your deck.

If you’re playing a Constructed format like Standard or Modern, it’s only legal if the card was already legal in that format. So if you opened a Mox Diamond, for example, you unfortunately can't play it in your Modern Affinity deck.

Are Inventions Available on MTG Arena? What About Magic Online?

Kind of — yes for Magic Online and partially for MTGA.

Magic Online has every version of Masterpieces available but they’re not in regular booster packs for their respective sets. They’re available through Treasure Chests only with a pretty low drop rate.

Magic Arena had some Inventions available through the in-game store for the Kaladesh Remastered set release. None of the other Masterpieces have been added to Arena yet.

Why Did Wizards Stop Making “Lottery” Cards Like This?

This is kind of a complicated answer. Players loved the idea of Masterpieces and they bought a lot of packs. But Amonkhet‘s series of Masterpieces called Invocations were very unpopular.

The art was unappealing, the card's text was stylized to look like hieroglyphics but ended up just being unreadable, and some of the card choices were bizarre. That paired with R&D's realization that including Masterpieces for every set would reduce their overall quality meant that Masterpieces were put on hiatus and the Ixalan block was released without them.

Wizards would later experiment with Mythic Editions, limited edition booster boxes that contained alternate art foil planeswalkers. But thanks to limited supply issues and shipping problems these were axed and eventually morphed into Secret Lairs.

Wrap Up

Aether Vial | Illustration by Billy Christian

Aether Vial (Misc. Promos) | Illustration by Billy Christian

Kaladesh Inventions were one of the coolest things Wizards brought to booster packs in a long time. But as Magic continues to grow and evolve, not every neat idea gets to stick around forever. While they used to be premium cards with a fancy border locked behind a brand-new rarity slot, they’re now a relic of a forgotten product.

Thanks to this brilliant experiment though, we now have the exciting Secret Lair drops as well as the new card frames and art styles we see in sets like Modern Horizons 2 and Forgotten Realms.

What do you think about Kaladesh Inventions? Are you glad for what they eventually gave us, or do you wish they’d stuck around anyway? Let me know if the comments down below! Plus, we've got a ton more guides like this so please check out our blog next.

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