The Gathering Fallout Card is Suddenly Opposite to Its In-Game Rarity

While it was not the first nor the last IP to get the Universes Beyond treatment in Magic: The Gathering, Fallout has been one of the most successful, adding several new and mechanically unique cards to the game. Past Universes Beyond releases were more limited in the number of newly added cards or their legality in Magic: The Gathering formats, and Fallout was released as an Eternal set, whereas current IPs are getting a full slew of products that range from Play Boosters to Commander decks. One of MTG‘s Commander decks for Fallout included a card that went on to become one of the most powerful and favorite by fans in the set, but it’s much rarer now than its video game counterpart.

Every Magic: The Gathering set can end up adding some unexpectedly powerful cards that are eventually added to many decks across multiple formats, and Fallout did the same with the infamous Nuka-Cola Vending Machine. This card is an artifact inspired by the actual Nuka-Cola from the Fallout series, which is one of the franchise’s icons, and it’s found in every game. Players will always find some Nuka-Cola bottles in their adventures, if not the entire vending machine, but the same cannot be said for Magic: The Gathering.

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Magic: The Gathering’s Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is Surging in Price Again

Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is part of the Science! Commander deck for Fallout, but it’s not found in any of the remaining three decks. Even then, since Commander decks only feature one copy of each card, there is just one Nuka-Cola Vending Machine to be found. Alternatively, this card can be found in multiple versions in the collector boosters for MTG‘s Fallout set, but it has been quite some time since it first came out, and unopened packs or displays are mostly inaccessible now to the general public due to their prices.

Ever since it started dropping in price in May of this year, at least on TCGPlayer.com, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine reached a price of around $7.50, which started spiking again at the end of June and reached its current peak of over $15.50 and up to $17-20, depending on the listings. This is an uncommon card, but the product it came from is scarcely available now, with collector booster displays going over an eye-watering $1,300. Since buying packs or displays is mostly impossible for average players, and the card wouldn’t even be guaranteed to come out, the most sensible options for MTG Commander players are to either buy it from other players or purchase a Science! deck.

However, the decks are also not that easily available, and even then, the cost of the Science! deck is usually between $40 and $60. Not only that, but the deck’s general value is much lower, so it may not be worth the purchase for those looking for just a few cards. With only a few listings online for the single cards or the products they come from, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is now very rare and sought-after, unlike Nuka-Cola in Fallout games.

Why MTG’s Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is Spiking in Price

Part of the reason its price surged again may be that MTG‘s Edge of Eternities includes a new commander in the form of Ragost, Deft Gastronaut, which has a lot of synergy with Food tokens – the same generated by Nuka-Cola Vending Machine. The same happened with the release of Bloomburrow, as the animal-centric set added Ygra, Eater of All, as a potential commander, which also played heavily with Food tokens. These tokens have become a big staple of the game over the years, and it’s one of the reasons why Nuka-Cola Vending Machine will most likely remain a rare and pricey card moving forward.

Original Release Date

August 5, 1993

Designer

Richard Garfield

Player Count

2+

Age Recommendation

13+