Throughout the years, Modern has seen plenty of staples come and go as the metagame shifts. Sadly, most of Modern’s classic cards have been left in the dust thanks to Modern Horizons sets. For better or worse, these supercharged sets have completely shifted the metagame multiple times over, to keep things interesting.
Most recently, Modern Horizons 3 brought about the rise of Boros Energy, which even received bans for being so strong. Thankfully, these bans, and the ones that followed to curb Grinding Breach’s dominance, have left a fairly healthy metagame. Boros Energy might still be at the top, but there’s definitely room for experimentation.
Thanks to this experimentation, we’ve recently seen the rise of a familiar face in Modern once again. While it’s hard to say it ever went away, Mutagenic Growth is now back on top, performing well in an unusual archetype. Sadly for Infect fans, that deck is still decidedly tier two. Izzet Prowess, on the other hand, is a true force to be reckoned with.
Mutagenic Growth
Since its release, way back in 2011’s New Phyrexia, Mutagenic Growth has been a staple in MTG. This card, along with Glistener Elf and other Infect icons, dominated Standard for the longest time. Unsurprisingly, once Modern was created in 2011, it didn’t take long for Infect to pop up there too.
Mutagenic Growth was largely to blame for this deck’s incredible power, as it’s essentially a free pump spell. Infect decks won fast enough that they didn’t care about their life total. Subsequently, paying two life for a +2/+2 buff was a no-brainer, especially when you only need ten Poison Counters to win.
While it’s not dealing damage with Infect, Izzet Prowess decks in Modern have a similar philosophy right now. Two life is very little to pay for the buff that Mutagenic Growth offers, especially since it’s also a free spell. Beyond just offering a decent buff to a Monastery Swiftspear, this card makes activating Flurry even easier.
Thanks to Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Cori-Steel Cutter, hitting Flurry wherever possible is a big deal nowadays. This allows Mutagenic Growth to essentially pull double duty in terms of value. The only trouble is keeping your hand full, however, that’s hardly a problem for aggressive Izzet decks to be dealing with.
While Izzet Prowess doesn’t seem to be the strongest deck in the Modern meta right now, it’s definitely a capable threat. Mutagenic Growth has helped push it up the order even more, as this recent Modern Challenge win showcases. Depending on which way the Modern meta ends up going in the future, Mutagenic Growth could return to being a true staple.
The Spike
Unsurprisingly, thanks to this recent resurgence, there’s been a lot of interest in Mutagenic Growth on the MTG financial markets. Since mid-April, when this old tech came back into fashion, there’s been a steady stream of sales on TCGplayer. As usual, this caused a slow and steady increase in price, which evolved into a spike as supply dwindled.
Currently, there are only around 83 non-foil near-mint copies of Mutagenic Growth left for purchase on TCGplayer. Curiously, despite this card getting a reprint in Modern Masters 2015, the original New Phyrexia printing has the most supply at the moment. This variant has also seen the highest volume of sales in recent weeks, leading to the highest price spike overall.
Back in mid-April, a near-mint copy of Mutagenic Growth would have set you back around $1.15. Since then, this price has been steadily climbing, with only a slight dip in mid-May. Following on from this, the price has been climbing back up, now reaching a market price of $3.27.
For the most part, prices for near-mint copies of Mutagenic Growth are fairly consistent across the board. That said, it is possible to pick up copies for cheaper if you don’t care so much about condition. Moderately and lightly played copies of Mutagenic Growth are currently selling for around $1.90, for example.
The Future
Sadly, while it’s always been around in Modern, Mutagenic Growth maintaining or increasing in price is hardly a sure thing. Since this card is barely played in Commander, it lives and dies based on Modern success. While the metagame is fairly stable at the moment, we’ve seen in recent months how it can change at a moment’s notice.
Even if the Modern metagame doesn’t change anytime soon, it seems Mutagenic Growth has a price ceiling. Looking back at the card’s price history on MTGStocks, it has struggled to maintain a high value. Saying that Mutagenic Growth ever reached a high value almost feels like a bit of a stretch, honestly.
In recent years, New Phyrexia copies of Mutagenic Growth have peaked at being worth $4. While this means there could be more in this current spike, I wouldn’t hold your breath. Saying that, of course, this spike could potentially be the biggest one yet. Should the card continue to perform in Izzet Prowess, then its price could well continue to rise.
As a bizarre upside, for Mutagenic Growth fans, at least, it seems Wizards may have phased out Modern Horizons sets. While we very much doubt they’re gone for good, Standard is getting six sets per year now. For better or worse, this doesn’t leave much room for anything else, although Wizards could easily change things up.
Ultimately, as always, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks and months.
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