Star Trek Stardates: Which Magic Cards Are Under Those Names?

General Picard, Earth Warlord has Kenrith, the Returned King printed in smaller letters immediately underneath his name. I like that this particular Star Trek Stardates card gives you an explanation before you reach the picture of Picard holding a skull. The man has made some choices. Mechanically, you’re looking at Kenrith.

That smaller line is the useful part if you’re checking whether you already own the card, replacing a commander, or trying to work out why a shop’s search results insist on calling your Spock a Tiefling. Stardates takes existing Magic cards and gives them Star Trek artwork and alternate names. The original identity remains attached to the card.

Wizards’ October 20 collecting guide confirms a sheet of 30 Stardates cards with the SDS set code. As I check on October 21, Scryfall has five entries available. This is a guide to those five revealed mappings, with the rest still to come. Star Trek’s tabletop release is November 13, 2026; the prices attached to SDS cards today are preorder territory.

The Star Trek Stardates name map so far

The links here show the actual SDS printings. Hover over one and you should see the Trek artwork, with the original Magic name below the larger alternate title.

The card names, collector numbers, and alternate names above come from the current SDS records. A gap between numbers 3 and 11 tells us there are unrevealed slots in that range. It doesn’t tell us which cards fill them. I’d leave those checklist spaces blank until there’s an actual preview.

Khan keeps Sheoldred’s draw triggers: your draws gain you two life, and opponents’ draws lose them two life. McCoy keeps Bristly Bill’s landfall counters and activated ability that doubles the counters on your creatures. Spock exiles a card at your end step and produces Treasure when you play cards from exile, just as Prosper does. Academy on the Bay taps for blue or can spend blue and tap to untap a legendary permanent.

Those are the identities I’d search for in an existing collection. If your deck wants Bristly Bill, a copy you already own can fill that slot while you decide whether you want McCoy’s artwork. If your collection search finds Minamo under its old Kamigawa name, you’ve found the card underlying Academy on the Bay.

I remember lending a friend my new foil Kenrith to look at during a Throne of Eldraine draft in 2019, then asking him twice that evening whether he’d given it back. The second time he pointed at the clear front pocket of my binder. Kenrith was facing outward. I’d put him there myself, apparently to keep him safe from the person currently trying to find him.

Picard and Kenrith still share one Commander slot

Wizards used this alternate-title approach for the Godzilla cards in Ikoria, explaining that the two presentations are equivalent for deck construction. The smaller original name is the one to use when checking how many copies your deck contains.

Commander generally allows one copy of a card other than basic lands. That means General Picard and Kenrith can’t occupy separate slots in an ordinary Commander deck. The same goes for Khan and Sheoldred, McCoy and Bristly Bill, Spock and Prosper, and Academy on the Bay and Minamo. A renamed printing also doesn’t let you exceed the usual combined four-copy limit in a format where that limit applies.

Picard’s casting cost includes only white mana, but the activated abilities contain all five colors. Under Commander’s color-identity rules, those symbols count too. As your commander, this Kenrith printing gives you a five-color identity. In another commander’s deck, it needs an identity that accommodates all five. Spock retains Prosper’s black-red identity.

The creature types remain whatever the card says. Spock, Mirror Malefactor is a Tiefling Warlock. That’s a deeply funny thing to read under that haircut, and it means a card looking for Vulcans won’t find one just because the illustration shows Spock. Picard is a Human Noble. The art gives you a different way to enjoy the card while the type line keeps doing its usual work.

There’s a format distinction worth checking before you put a Stardates pull into a Standard deck. Wizards separates SDS from the main TRK set: Stardates cards are legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage, with individual cards also legal in formats where they already qualify. Appearing in the same booster as the main set doesn’t grant every reprint Standard legality.

At this check, Scryfall lists Bristly Bill as Standard-legal and Kenrith as outside Standard. Use the original identity when checking the format you actually play. In Star Trek Draft or Sealed, Wizards says SDS cards opened from the Play Boosters can be played in that Limited event.

A Trek printing needs its own collection entry

For a want list, I’d group the alternate names under the original card. For the physical inventory, I’d keep each printing separate. Owning an old Kenrith and wanting the Picard version are two different entries in that process: you already have the deck function covered, and you’re choosing an artwork upgrade. Running a want list against your collection is more useful when the two names can find each other.

The existing Throne of Eldraine Kenrith, ELD 303, has a $1.29 nonfoil reference price today. The Dominaria United Sheoldred, DMU 107, is $102.11 nonfoil. The Champions of Kamigawa Minamo, CHK 279, is $57.96 nonfoil. All three prices are Scryfall’s USD fields checked October 21, tied to those exact printings.

Those comparisons give me a starting point for checking what I own. The Trek art has its own market. At the same check, Khan’s SDS 11 entry shows $199.99 nonfoil and $249.99 foil; the other four revealed SDS entries have blank USD fields. With release still ahead, I’d treat the Khan figures as preorder quotes. A blank field means the database has no quote for that finish; I’d leave its value unknown.

I’m inclined to wait for the SDS prices to develop before buying a cosmetic replacement. Then I look at that ridiculous Picard and wonder how firmly I believe my own advice. A specific picture can be the whole reason to want a card. I’d still write down the amount I was comfortable paying before opening a preorder page, because a $1.29 Kenrith already activates every ability on the card.

Wizards places nonfoil Stardates in both Play and Collector Boosters, and traditional foil Stardates only in Collector Boosters. Its Play Booster breakdown gives a Stardates appearance in one out of 25 packs. With 30 packs in a Play Booster box, that’s an average of 1.2 Stardates cards per box across many boxes. That average leaves your particular pulls unknown. The published rate is for the sheet overall, so I wouldn’t use it to promise how many boxes produce one particular Picard.

Okay, the scan says Kenrith. Good. Which set? SDS, number 3. Foil or nonfoil? Check that too. If the search shows your Eldraine copy beside it, leave both records there. You’ve got two physical cards even though a Commander list treats them as the same name.

In Eldwyn, I’d verify the matched printing and finish as each card goes in. If another tool only finds the original name, retain that identity and record the Trek alias in a separate note alongside the set and collector number. Our guide to the bottom line on a Magic card covers those identifiers. Save what you actually paid separately from a changing market quote.

The earlier Star Trek reprint article flagged Stardates while most of the sheet was unknown. There’s still plenty of empty space on the checklist. For now, I’d put both names on any want-list note: General Picard, Earth Warlord / Kenrith, the Returned King. It’ll save the person across the trade table a search, especially if they’ve been looking for a perfectly ordinary Human Noble.