Both of the Edge of Eternities Commander precons were revealed in their entirety earlier this week. Uniquely, these decks feature a cool Spacecraft as the face Commander and a potent legend support element as the secondary Commander.
When precons get revealed, it’s very common for synergistic cards that didn’t make the cut in the decklist to rise in demand, and as a result, price. Zask, Skittering Swarmlord experienced a significant spike in a short period of time following the reveal of the World Shaper precon.
Now, it appears that Tiller Engine is the next card to follow suit. This Construct has skyrocketed in price in just a couple days, and for good reason.
Tiller Engine
Tiller Engine is an interesting option for land-focused decks in Commander. Being able to reliably untap any lands that would normally enter the battlefield tapped is a very strong ability. There’s a reason why Amulet of Vigor remains a Modern powerhouse.
This card is at its best in decks that play a large number of lands that naturally enter tapped or that utilize a high density of effects that put lands into play tapped. For example, Nine-Fingers Keene decks can use Tiller Engine as a mana accelerant by untapping all their Gates when they enter.
At the same time, ensuring that lands you put into play with The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride all get to untap makes it easier to cast a flurry of spells in the same turn. Similarly, decks with Lumra, Bellow of the Woods at the helm get a big boost when all the lands Lumra returns to play can be used for mana that turn.
It’s also important to not forget the second ability. It won’t come up as often, but tapping down multiple of your opponent’s creatures to enable a big attack is a nice line to have access to.
In the case of the World Shaper precon, Tiller Engine gets most of its appeal because the deck features so many tapped lands. The goal is to use cards like Szarel, Genesis Shepherd to play lands from your graveyard, and pair this effect with lands such as Evolving Wilds or Cabaretti Courtyard that go to your graveyard repeatedly.
Well, untapping all the basic lands you search for is big game. Notably, if you want to go all out upgrading this shell with Fetchlands and dual lands to speed things up, Tiller Engine becomes less necessary. A full-powered manabase is very expensive, though, so Tiller Engine and similar support elements are decent alternatives.
The Spike
With regards to Tiller Engine’s major spike, the price jump perfectly coincided with the reveal of the World Shaper precon. On July 8th, the face Commander for the precon was previewed. The next day, the precon was showcased in its entirety.
For most of the last month, Tiller Engine has hovered just over $9 according to TCGplayer market price, with its lowest point falling to $8.96 during that time frame. On July 9th, the card had risen slightly to over $10. Since then, the card has continued its steep incline, reaching a market price of over $17 at the time of writing this article.
This isn’t too surprising when we factor in the card’s increased demand over the last three days. From July 1st to July 8th, only 35 separate sales of Tiller Engine in its traditional form were purchased. By contrast, on July 9th alone, over 60 sales were made.
Tiller Engine’s extended art variant followed a similar trend. Less than 20 sales were made from July 1st to July 8th, while over 25 sales happened on July 9th.
Interestingly, the current market price alone doesn’t tell the whole story of the spike. The price of Tiller Engine in both traditional and extended art forms has ballooned so rapidly that market price still hasn’t fully caught up.
Four of the last seven traditional copies sold for $27.69. The lowest current sale listing sits at $27.60, suggesting that supply is running thinner. In fact, while extended art copies of Tiller Engine have yet to sell for above $20 this month, there are only four current sales listings available, with the lowest at $39.99!
Moving Forward
As always, it’s impossible to predict the future. That said, with supply so low for Tiller Engine, it seems unlikely that the card will drop in price significantly in the near future. After all, Tiller Engine has only ever appeared in Dominaria United Commander. As such, it’s not like there’s an abundant circulation of the card to begin with.
The only thing to keep in mind is that it’s very common for the demand for cards that synergize with a Commander precon to lessen as the hype for the precon dies down. Chances are, players flocked to Tiller Engine right out of the gates, but demand will decrease over time, especially when spoilers for the next set roll around.
For now, though, Edge of Eternities is the new hotness. Expect some other upgrades to spike in the coming days.
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