Since the ban announcement that took place on June 30th, Standard has gone through some major metagame shifts. For the first week, it looked like Dimir midrange might cement itself as the best deck by a wide margin for the foreseeable future. Interestingly, though, Izzet has seen a significant increase in popularity.
While Izzet Prowess specifically took a huge blow with Cori-Steel Cutter out of the mix, Izzet Cauldron has become a format frontrunner, consistently crushing tournament after tournament. This has caused some major price spikes within the archetype, none more impactful than the spike of the card that makes the whole engine tick.
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron has appeared in a variety of different decks since its printing in Wilds of Eldraine. All you need to do is get a few cards with elite activated abilities into the graveyard, and you’re off to the races. Getting just one +1/+1 counter onto each creature you control can make your entire board into absolute monsters.
In Modern, Cauldron was quick to make a splash in Golgari Yawgmoth, synergizing with both Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Grist, the Hunger Tide. In Legacy, it commonly shows up in Painter’s Servant combo as a way to make it easier to take advantage of Goblin Welder.
Unsurprisingly, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron also sees a fair amount of play in Commander. According to EDHREC, Cauldron is currently played in over 77,000 decks. While this is far from Magic’s most prolific artifact, there’s no denying it’s a seriously strong card.
Due to its multi-format success, Cauldron has been a pretty pricy card for quite some time. It wasn’t until Izzet Cauldron started seeing success in Standard, though, that its price began to skyrocket. Using low-cost discard outlets like Fear of Missing Out and Tersa Lightshatter, this deck aims to get Vivi Ornitier into the graveyard. From here, Cauldron can put +1/+1 counters on your creatures and provide you with tons of extra mana during your turn.
Unsurprisingly, this synergy can create a ton of mana, allowing you to cast spells and draw through your deck. If you have Proft’s Eidetic Memory in play, this will get you even more +1/+1 counters to really dish out the hurt. As if this weren’t enough, the deck can also just play powerful spells and creatures without needing to lean on the combo.
The Spike
Izzet Cauldron’s first claim to fame came when the deck put up a great performance at Pro Tour Final Fantasy. The deck was still quite new at this time, however, and lived in Prowess’s shadows. It wasn’t until the ban announcement that Izzet Cauldron got a lot more attention. After that, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron really started to rise in price.
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron hovered between $26 and $30 for most of June, according to the TCGplayer market price. Since then, the card has steadily risen in value. This is likely caused in part by the rise in sales on June 30th. That day, over 80 copies of Cauldron were purchased. Players were assumedly speculating on the rise of Izzet Cauldron, and they’d be right!
Currently, Cauldron’s market price is just over $56. Notably, however, the lowest current near mint listing sits at $65. Recent sales, meanwhile, have exceeded $70. That puts Cauldron now in contention with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Vivi Ornitier for the most expensive card in Standard.
On top of that, Cauldron’s Extended Art variant is worth a lot more. The last two sales went for over $99 apiece, and the lowest near-mint listing is $101!
Rotation Proof
So far, the price of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron has been steadily climbing with no signs of stopping. There’s clearly a good deal of demand for this card, as the consistent sales above show. That said, there’s still a good amount of supply on TCGplayer. With 34 near-mint listings on TCGplayer, just for the default variant, Cauldron isn’t impossible to get ahold of.
Despite this decent amount of supply, sellers are nonetheless capitalizing on the growing demand. Sadly, this demand might not die down soon, since Izzet Cauldron is largely rotation-proof. The only maindeck nonland card you’ll lose is Voldaren Thrillseeker. This is an important piece of the puzzle in enabling kills outside of combat with Cauldron, but the deck should still be strong without it.
Ultimately, as always, it’s impossible to predict the future and where the price of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron may go. That said, unless Edge of Eternities seriously shakes up the metagame, this deck is likely to remain strong for some time. With new bans not scheduled until November, Cauldron may just keep getting more and more expensive.
For now, if you want to build the Izzet Cauldron deck, you’ll have to shell out a lot of money. We’ll have to watch and see how prices continue to fluctuate in the coming weeks.
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