Surprising absolutely no one, the Magic: The Gathering x Marvel’s Deadpool Secret Lair drop has proved incredibly popular so far. After dropping unexpectedly as an April Fools bonus last week, it quickly sold out online. Since then, MTG players have been buying up synergistic cards for Deadpool decks, resulting in a number of spicy price spikes.
From The Master, Multiplied to Determined Iteration, the secondary market is shifting hard now that Deadpool is in town. This week, a few lesser-known cards have joined this esteemed roster. If you’re in Rakdos colors and you provide support to everyone’s favorite anti-hero, chances are you’re due a spike soon. Whether these spikes stick or not is a question for the future, but for now, Deadpool is making a financial impact befitting his larger-than-life personality.
Mirage Phalanx (+250%)
- Mana Value: 4RR
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Creature – Human Soldier
- Stats: 4/4
- Card Text: Soulbond (You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when either enters. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them.)
As long as Mirage Phalanx is paired with another creature, each of those creatures has “At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a token that’s a copy of this creature, except it has Haste and loses Soulbond. Exile it at end of combat.”
Mirage Phalanx is a classic case of a Commander-driven price spike. Until this week, the card was essentially a bulk rare, selling for around $0.91 a copy. With the advent of Deadpool, the card is now sitting at around $3.22 for the Extended Art version. That’s a price spike of over 250%. The regular printing has seen a smaller increase, from $0.72 to $1.11. When you consider how well the card works with Deadpool, Trading Card, this isn’t surprising in the least.
You can Soulbond Phalanx to Deadpool when either enters, then make a copy of Deadpool every turn at the start of combat. You’ll have to sacrifice the new Deadpool to the legend rule, of course, but not before he gets to swap text boxes with a creature in play. This means you’ll get to use its enters and dies effects, and saddle it with a pesky burn-on-upkeep trigger. As we’ve seen with cards like The Master, Multiplied, cards that copy creatures are fantastic with Deadpool for this reason. Phalanx also creates a copy of itself too, which is less exciting but worth noting nonetheless.
While Phalanx is clearly a great addition to a Deadpool deck, it very much looks like one of your typical MTG price spikes that reverts as soon as the hype train has moved on to the next shiny new toy. It likely doesn’t have financial legs as strong as The Master, Multiplied, in any case. That said, the regular printing is still reasonably priced currently, so there’s not much risk in grabbing a copy or two now if you want to build the deck.
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent (+91%)
- Mana Value: 1BR
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Minion
- Stats: 5/5
- Card Text: Xantcha enters under the control of an opponent of your choice.
Xantcha attacks each combat if able and can’t attack its owner or planeswalkers its owner controls.
3: Xantcha’s controller loses 2 life and you draw a card. Any player may activate this ability.
Copying Deadpool is certainly the most obvious application for the card, but players are quickly latching on to its potential as a ‘saddle your opponents with a bunch of negative effects’ Commander as well. Case in point: the fact that Xantcha, Sleeper Agent has seen a price spike this week as well. If you’re going for this style of Deadpool deck she’s a slam-dunk addition. She comes in under an opponents control and causes all manner of problems, attacking the rest of the table and letting everyone else draw cards while burning her host.
Thanks to this clear-cut synergy, pretty much every version of Xantcha has seen a significant spike over the past few days. The Commander 2018 printing has gained the most, going from $2.95 to $5.64 in a 91% increase. The Commander Masters and The List printings are up too, albeit not quite as much. Clearly players have caught on to her potential in Deadpool shells and are snapping up their copies now.
As Deadpool price spikes go, I’d say Xantcha is fairly tentative. The card has a good number of printings, and it’s not an immensely powerful combo enabler or anything. That said, it is a very fun card for chaotic multiplayer games, which is a playstyle Deadpool actively encourages. It could well sustain its new inflated price on this merit alone, but as always, only time will tell.
Cursed Totem (+141%)
- Mana Value: 2
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Artifact
- Card Text: Activated abilities of creatures can’t be activated.
As is often the case with new Commander-related price spikes, Deadpool is also bringing some mostly forgotten MTG cards back into the fold. Cursed Totem is perhaps the best example of this so far. This is a proper old-school tech card from way back in Mirage. It saw a reprint into Modern in Modern Horizons 2, and routinely makes its presence known in some formats as a hate piece for various strategies.
Turns out it’s a pretty good addition to Deadpool decks, however, since it prevents your opponents from sacrificing their text-swapped creatures. This not only ensures they’ll be taking three damage a turn for the foreseeable, but it also serves as a way to permanently deal with an opposing Commander. If your opponent doesn’t have a sacrifice outlet, this can screw up their entire game plan.
Players caught on to this interaction fairly quickly, and as a result the card is now rising in price. The Modern Horizons 2 printing has gone from around $0.91 to around $2.20 over the last couple of weeks, which is an impressive 141% increase. Interestingly, classic printings of the card, those from Mirage and Sixth Edition, seem unaffected so far.
This may just be the wider market being slow to react to the spike, or it could signal that the online hype for the card in Deadpool doesn’t bear out in reality. While the interaction is powerful, it also heavily limits your own options. As a result, it may not become a staple in the deck once things settle down. Conversely, given that the card does actually have applications elsewhere, if Deadpool decks adopt it en masse that $2.20 price tag could end up looking real cheap in the near future.
