As Final Fantasy cards begin to sort out their realistic price points, lots of movement is being seen in the secondary market. A majority of cards are, as expected, falling from their prerelease premiums, but a few have managed to see a price hike after prerelease weekend thanks to some initial constructed success. Astrologian’s Planisphere, Summon: Knights of Round and Yuna, Hope of Spira have all fallen under this category.
Another single has seen a similar price increase over the past few weeks, but unlike the others, this card doesn’t seem to be a case of constructed popularity. Nibelheim Aflame is, instead, just a very flashy Commander card.
MTG Nibelheim Aflame
Nibelheim Aflame is an incredibly powerful board wipe in the right contexts. Should your Commander have damage triggers, or Lifelink, Nibelheim Aflame does some ridiculous things. More often than not, this card will serve as a somewhat fragile board wipe with a massive upside should it resolve. Use this with a Commander like Maarika, Brutal Gladiator, and you can essentially wipe most of your opponent’s boardstate. Notably, if Nibelheim Aflame’s target gets removed in response to your cast, the spell will fizzle entirely.
Nibelheim Aflame’s cast from hand is essentially a slightly undercosted, but weaker Chandra’s Ignition. Unlike Ignition, Nibelheim Aflame can’t damage opponents. This makes comboing the card with Blightsteel Colossus less exciting.
That said, this card makes up for that in its Flashback effect. Seven mana is expensive, but should it resolve, you’ll get a boardwipe and a hand refill. This makes Nibelheim Aflame much stronger in decks that mill over cards, Loot, Rummage, or have any synergies with the graveyard. One board wipe isn’t too interesting, but two board wipes attached to a lategame hand refill is strong enough to see play across many Commander decks.
Outside of being a strong generic Commander card, however, there doesn’t seem to be a specific reason that Nibelheim Aflame is rising in price. The card is seeing no constructed play as of the writing of this article, and the card is too widely applicable to be especially good in specific Commander decks. It is, however, a decent upgrade to the Final Fantasy VII Limit Break Commander deck, and is rather flavorful thanks to the scene it depicts.
The Spike
Nibelheim Aflame, in its nonfoil variant specifically, is following pricing patterns seen for a lot of other in-demand Final Fantasy MTG cards. After hitting a low following prerelease weekend at about $1.10, the card then spiked throughout the week to $9.68 before the official Final Fantasy release occurred. Once the official release date came and went, an influx of demand was matched with an influx of supply, causing the card to balance at a more realistic pricepoint of about $6.00 after a massive 248 copies exchanged hands in just one day.
Traditional foil variants of Nibelheim Aflame, however, tell a completely different story. That version of the card has consistently spiked since prerelease, with a tiny drop after release day passed. That variant of the card currently sits at an $8.50 market average, continuing to climb.
Borderless Nibelheim Aflame are considerably more expensive, with most nonfoil sales hovering around the $15-$20 mark. This variant of the card has only seen a small spike from its post-release nadir, something that doesn’t match the traditional variant. Borderless foils are the most expensive of the bunch, generally retailing between $25 and $30. Demand patterns for all variants of Nibelheim Aflame are similar, but the traditional variant is much more popular. This is likely a reflection of its cheaper price.
What’s Next?
At the time of writing, Nibelheim Aflame’s traditional nonfoil variant is starting to slump back down in price, but all of its other variants still seem to be spiking at different speeds. This likely just means that the card is currently trying to find its real price point.
In the long term, I would recommend Commander players pick up a copy of Nibelheim Aflame at some point. Generically strong Commander cards like this will probably experience spikes when future Commanders with powerful synergies appear. Universes Beyond cards can be somewhat challenging to reprint, as well, since there aren’t usually recurring sets in the same IP. It is entirely possible to reprint a Final Fantasy card in an MTG set, but doing so in a flavorful way might be challenging. Should Nibelheim Aflame be a strong option in a Commander coming out a few years from now, the renewed demand for a card with just one printing could really squeeze the price.
In the short term, Nibelheim Aflame just seems to be, once again, trying to find a proper price point. There’s a good chance that, once demand wanes for this card, it will drop back in price a bit. This is a card that a lot of Commanders want, but it’s still a pretty specific effect compared to true Commander homestays, so demand should vary.
While I would recommend picking up one of these for your collection, it’s impossible to know for sure what will happen to any MTG card financially. Regardless of whether it becomes pricy or not in the future, many players should be able to find an interesting use for it.
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