Commander is one of Magic the Gathering’s most popular formats, in part because there are so many neat themes for players to build around. Whether you’re a fan of ramp strategies, typal decks, or go-wide archetypes, there’s something for everyone.
More and more unique legends get printed every year, too, giving Commander a constant influx of options to keep the format exciting. Recently, the MTG Aetherdrift precons brought some powerful creatures to the EDH world. The Eternal Might deck in particular gave us two extremely powerful legendary threats in the form of Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist and Temmet, Naktamun’s Will which are both pretty popular right now.
A handful of cards that synergize well with the discard and Zombie themes that these creatures incentivize have risen in price as a result. Varina, Lich Queen spiked significantly back in January, and Bone Miser followed suit soon after. Now, it seems yet another Zombie powerhouse has ballooned in price.
Hordewing Skaab
Hordewing Skaab was printed back in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Commander and has been a staple of various Zombie EDH decks since. Giving all of your Zombies flying is already extremely appealing, especially alongside Commanders like Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver and The Scarab God which encourage you to build out a big board of Zombies.
Hordewing Skaab’s ability to act as a discard outlet, however, is what sets it over the edge. Hordewing Skaab makes it trivial to connect in combat, and then discard some huge haymakers for free. In conjunction with Hashaton, you’ll be able to build out a board of scary threats in no time. Of course, because the token copies that Hashaton generates are Zombies, they’ll gain flying too thanks to Hordewing Skaab.
Hordewing Skaab is elite with Temmet at the helm as well. By giving all your Zombies evasion, you have a much better shot of being able to attack with your Zombie army each combat. Temmet lets you loot and grow your squad each time you attack. From there, once you connect in combat, you can draw and discard more cards via Hordewing Skaab’s final ability.
Being able to sculpt your hand is an underrated aspect of the card. Throw in some other discard or reanimation synergies, such as Bone Miser or Zombie Apocalypse, and you’ve got a great game plan!
The Spike
Hordewing Skaab being a top-tier upgrade for the Eternal Might precon obviously helped drive up the card’s price, but the way the card’s price increased is a bit intriguing. Both Aetherdrift Commander precons were revealed on January 24th and January 25th. Other upgrades like Varina, Lich Lord and Bone Miser began spiking very soon after the reveal of the Eternal Might precon.
Hordewing Skaab, by contrast, really didn’t see a major increase until the start of last week. Between January 24th and February 9th, Hordewing Skaab rose ever so slightly from $2.71 to $3.72, according to TCGplayer market price. Since then, the card has consistently gone up in price every day. Its market price currently sits at $10.56 in its traditional, non-foil form.
This means that Hordewing Skaab has spiked 290% over the last three weeks. Furthermore, there have been a decent number of sales over the past two days where the card was purchased for over $14, showcasing its high demand.
Notably, the extended art variant of Hordewing Skaab is actually worth a little bit less. The market price for this version is listed at $8.56. Still, the three most recent sales of the card were still for over $13, suggesting demand is on the rise.
The Future
At the end of the day, Hordewing Skaab hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Both printings have just kept increasing in price day by day. Unlike Bone Miser, Hordewing Skaab also has no reprints looming that could increase the card’s supply.
With no reprints to speak of, Hordewing Skaab may follow a similar pattern to Varina, which has grown in price even more since we discussed its initial spike weeks ago. These aren’t the only Zombies to see some sort of spike in the last few weeks, either. Other common upgrades to the Eternal Might Commander deck, including Diregraf Colossus, have climbed in price as well (albeit to a lesser extent).
Until the hype dies down, and it’s unclear if that will happen anytime soon, I’d expect Hordewing Skaab to maintain a high price tag. Hashaton and Temmet have proven to be elite and fun. Make sure to check your collection for any copies of Hordewing Skaab you might have lying around.