While price spikes in Magic: The Gathering are typically looked on unfavorably, they do serve a valuable function. Whenever a new set drops, you can expect to see spikes on older synergy pieces that work well with the new cards. Often these cards are obscure, lost to the mists of time and the bottoms of bulk bins. Price spikes, in their way, give these cards a second chance in the spotlight. This week, this exact phenomenon is playing out with the largely-forgotten MTG card Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield.
Even if you bought a ton of Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, there’s a good chance you’ve never seen this card before. It was restricted to a very specific product, and as such there aren’t a lot of copies to go around. Now that toughness-matters decks are relevant again thanks to the Abzan Armor precon, players have picked up on the card’s potential. As you’d expect, this combination of limited supply and increased demand has led to a significant value jump for the card.
Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield MTG
- Mana Value: 3W
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Artifact
- Card Text: Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, draw a card, then create a 0/3 white Wall creature token with Defender.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, creatures you control with Defender gain Exalted until end of turn. (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each instance of Exalted among permanents you control.)
Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield is an unusual MTG card from top to bottom. It’s a standalone legendary artifact, for one, which is pretty rare. On top of that, it’s designed to support decks that rely heavily on creatures with Defender. This isn’t an angle that Wizards pushes too often, as most players will know.
While it takes four mana to get going, Rammas Echor can easily make you a 0/3 Wall every turn cycle from there on out. It’s not restricted to your own turn, either, so if you’re running a lot of interaction, it can do more than that. You really only need to make three or four Walls with this overall to make it worth the investment.
0/3 Defenders aren’t sexy in the slightest, but it’s important to consider context here. In the decks that want Rammas Echor, such as Abzan Armor, those Walls will often be attacking as 3/3s. Whether it’s Doran or Felothar, there are plenty of ways to make this happen. Put in those terms, it starts looking a lot more generous.
On top of that, Rammas Echor also gives all of your Defenders Exalted. This lets them add to your damage output even if you don’t have one of the aforementioned enablers in play. It’s a situational ability, certainly, but a welcome addition all the same. If you’re going for a Commander damage win, going wide with Walls, then landing one big attack can be a legitimate game plan. Even if that never comes up, the Wall production is good enough to land this card a spot in pretty much any Toughness-Matters deck.
Heads, Spikes, Walls
Based on the card’s current price trends, it would seem many Magic: The Gathering players agree. Over the last month, the regular version of the card has jumped 207% in value, going from $2.89 to $8.80. The Surge Foil variant has seen similar action, going from $6.34 to $14.01; a 121% increase.
It’s no mystery as to why this is. The Face Commanders for the Tarkir: Dragonstorm precons were revealed around mid-March, which is when the card really started to gain traction. It’s a classic example of popular Commander decks driving pricing, which we’ve seen countless times recently.
Short-term, these gains will likely continue for a little while. Long-term, Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield has a fairly unusual position as far as MTG cards go. While it looks to be part of the Lord of the Rings Commander decks, this card was actually available through the ‘Gandalf in the Pelennor Fields’ Holiday Scene Box. You could also find copies in Lord of the Rings Collector Boosters, but rarely in the grand scheme of things.
Considering the potential scarcity of this card, there’s still a decent number of them for sale. 36 of the normal variant remains in TCGplayer as of the writing of this article. That said, multiple days in recent times have seen more copies of Rammas sold than the current existing supply.
Because of this unusual distribution, Rammas Echor is likely to become a pretty scarce card in the near future. With the prices on Lord of the Rings product increasing all the time, I don’t expect many extra copies to be opened. This means it’s likely a safe spike to buy into, where many other Commander spikes are not. The card is a must-play in Defender decks, so it’s likely to increase further in value in future.
How Much Does Toughness Matter?
Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield is the first MTG price spike we’ve seen caused by Abzan Armor, but it may not be the last. There are a ton of great toughness-matters cards out there, many of which have been similarly overlooked. If Rammas Echor’s popularity is any indication, these cards could experience their own spikes soon.
Wall of Shards is a great example. As a 1/8 Flying Defender for two mana, this is one of the most efficient cards you can add to your Abzan Armor deck. It hits hard in the air with Felothar out, and gets you a fifth of the way towards Betor’s ‘ultimate’ ability by itself. Like Rammas Echor, it also has very limited printings. The card saw print once in Coldsnap and again on The List. That’s not a ton of supply, which means its current $4 price tag could jump by a lot if Abzan players start adopting it en masse.
Nethroi, Apex of Death is another interesting spec. It’s like an extra copy of Reunion of the House, already a great card in Abzan Armor, but with a body attached. The card is currently less than $1 on the low end, but that could change very soon. It’s also a tricky card to reprint thanks to Mutate, so any spikes that do occur will likely stick.
Finally, to spotlight another card from Lord of the Rings, Last March of the Ents is one of the best toughness-matters cards Magic: The Gathering has ever seen. It’s a huge splashy finisher, and one that thrives in exactly this kind of deck. It’s already quite pricey at $19, but Abzan Armor demand could push it higher still. One to consider now if you love your Wall decks.