Affectionately known to fans as “Sad Robot,” Solemn Simulacrum has seen play in plenty of artifact decks forMagic: The Gatheringsince its debut in 2003’s Mirrodin set. Four might seem like a lot to pay for a 2/2, but Solemn Simulacrum offers card advantage upon entering and leaving the battlefield, and there’s no shortage of ways to interact with its status as an artifact.
When a card becomes as iconic as Solemn Simulacrum has, there’s no question that it will start to make appearances on promo cards, limited editions, and even the occasional set reprint. Here are the most valuable ones to add to your binder.
Prices listed below reflect theTCGPlayer.commarket price on the day this article was written; Jun 13, 2025.
8M21239-PRE - 2021 Core Set Prerelease Promo ($2.14)
Prerelease Attendance Was Down In 2020.
Prerelease promos don’t often see much of an increase in value over the regular version of the card that you’d find in a booster pack. Everybody who goes to a prerelease gets one, andhaving the date of the event engraved on the cardgenerally isn’t a big enough difference to make them exciting to collectors.
Of course, peopleweren’t attending in-person events in June of 2020, when Solemn Simulacrum was offered as the promo for the coming year’s Magic Core Set. At the end of the day, this card isstill just a prerelease promo, but the lower tournament attendance in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic means that fewer players got to claim a copy.
7MRD245 - Mirrodin ($2.22)
It took a lot to stand out among the legions of powerful artifact creatures in the days of Mirrodin. Anyone who was playing competitively at that time will never forget how powerful Affinity decks were. With monstrous cards like Arcbound Ravager tearing across the meta fueled by Cranial Plating and artifact lands, it took some cunning players to notice the simple utility of a humble robot.
Solemn Simulacrum has had a lot of really great illustrations over the years, but if you have a soft spot for the original art by Greg Staples, why not fill out your deck with the original printing?
6WHO837 - Universes Beyond: Doctor Who, Surge Foil ($3.33)
Sadly, You Can’t Go Back In Time To Get A Booster Box.
The Universes Beyond: Doctor Who set showcases many of the show’s classic aliens as famous Magic cards. Solemn Simulacrum, for their part, is represented by an Emojibot - appropriately looking quite sad.
There are several versions of the card in the Doctor Who set, including extended art, but the rarest - and by extension the most valuable - is thesurge foilvariant.
5PIP1014 - Universes Beyond: Fallout, Extended Art Surge Foil ($4.28)
One For The Vault.
Fallout was another Universes Beyond set that mashed up classic Magic cards with other beloved franchises. While the extended art surge foil isn’t the most valuable card in the set by a long shot, it’s still arare enough pullthat it’s probably worth hanging onto if you were lucky enough to get one. After all, it’s unlikely that we’ll see that artwork on a card ever again, unless Wizards and Bethesda decide to do another set sometime in the future.
4SLD1725 - Luke Pearson Secret Lair, Rainbow Foil ($5.26)
He’s Just A Little Guy!
The most recent printing of Solemn Simulacrum came in theWinter 2025 Superdrop. The Luke Pearson collection, featuring illustrations by the artist for the comic series Hilda, includes the Simulacrum hard at work, dourly carving a new friend from wood.
As of right now, there’slittle difference between the foil and non-foil versions, so if you’re buying the cards as singles the rainbow foil will only run you an extra quarter. If you’re getting the whole Secret Lair, though, expect the foil set to be more expensive.
3SLD1113 - Yoji Shinkawa Secret Lair ($12.66)
The Box It Comes In Is Too Small To Hide Under, Unfortunately.
Yoji Shinkawa is best known forcharacter and mech design for many of Hideo Kojima’s games, including theMetal Gear Solidseries andDeath Stranding. His Secret Lair drop lends his signature style to several Magic cards, including, of course, Solemn Simulacrum.
Shinkawa’s take on the Simulacrum gives the card an edgy sci-fi vibe, making it a great way to add some flavor to your deck. Releasing in 2022, it’s now been a few years, so the cards in this collection will likely be harder to come by as more time passes.
2SLD791 - Through The Wormhole Secret Lair, Galaxy Foil ($13.08)
A Truly Otherworldly Card.
Secret Lair: Through The Wormhole featured high science-fiction art from Dani Pendergast, including a Solemn Simulacrum pondering its existence at the end of space and time. While getting the whole set sealed is an expensive proposition, the individual aren’t that unreasonable in terms of price.
Through The Wormhole came in both a standard and “galaxy foil” edition; the galaxy foils are gorgeous, but if you’re looking to save money the standard version of the Pendergast Solemn Simulacrum is less than half the price of the foil.
1MPS025 - Masterpiece Series: Kaladesh Inventions ($75.53)
The Rarest Simulacrum Of Them All
If you were very lucky during Kaladesh block circa 2016, you could get a special foil from the Masterpiece Series in a booster pack. Only one pack in 144 had a Masterpiece (that’s one card out of four booster boxes), and with 29 other Masterpieces in Kaladesh packs the odds of specifically pulling a Masterpiece Solemn Simulacrum were astronomical; you’d have to open120 booster boxeson averageto get one.
With that kind of rarity, it’s no surprise that the Masterpiece version of Solemn Simulacrum is so much more valuable than any other printing of the card. Getting a Secret Lair before it sells out relies on a very different kind of luck than finding a card in a booster; to get a Masterpiece, your only recourse was to open pack after pack, or shell out the cash to buy the card from someone who’d already got one.
