The preconstructed Commander decks from Edge of Eternities proved to be really popular, and for good reason. The new exclusive cards introduced in these decks were much stronger than we’ve usually seen, and thanks to some direct Secret Lair upgrades, these precons can also be tuned to be extremely competitive rather easily. Just don’t buy the Galaxy foil variant.
While the new Secret Lair drops did offer some compelling upgrades, MTG players hardly stopped there. It’s common for new precons to receive tons of upgrades, and the Edge of Eternities decks were no different. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that Lord Windgrace has been climbing in price so much, as it’s the perfect upgrade to the World Shaper precon.
Lord Windgrace
Bizarrely, Lord Windgrace is the face Commander of a past Commander precon that functions very similarly to Edge of Eternities’ World Shaper. Named Nature’s Vengeance, the 2018 Commander precon also wins games by using land sacrifice synergies. That said, the strength of Commander precons has increased significantly over the past seven years, meaning that Nature’s Vengeance cannot really hold a candle to World Shaper. Lord Windgrace, however, remains a powerful card.
Everything that Lord Windgrace does is something that the World Shaper deck is interested in. You can turn extra lands in your hand into card draw, and bring them back later with one of the various Crucible of Worlds effects in the deck, or with massive land reanimation like Splendid Reclamation. Windgrace’s -3 helps recur some sacrificed lands back into play. Thanks to Hearthhull, the Worldseed sacrificing lands for its own engine, you can often slam a Windgrace ahead of schedule, use it for ramp, and you still have a threat that your opponents need to deal with.
While you won’t pull off the Ultimate effect often, Lord Windgrace should put you in a game-winning position whenever you do so. This threat forces the opponent to deal with Windgrace, but, as far as you’re concerned, this card is strong enough to see play in World Shaper for just its first two abilities. Potentially drawing removal and combat damage out of your opponents is just a bonus.
Considering how synergistic Lord Windgrace is in World Shaper, we’re shocked that the card didn’t spike in preview season like most upgrades for these decks did. While Windgrace is a little late, the card certainly started to increase in price after players realized that the Planeswalker wasn’t getting reprinted in World Shaper.
The Spike
While most of Lord Windgrace’s spike occurred in late July, the card started to see a massive demand increase between July 7th and 9th, where 51 near-mint copies were sold. This correlates with the full reveal for World Shaper on July 9th, confirming that Lord Windgrace would not be reprinted in the precon.
Since then, Lord Windgrace spiked from $2.38 to a market average of $20.38 for its traditional foil variant as pictured above. This represents a 756.303% price spike.
According to recent sales, $20.38 is a little below what the average Lord Windgrace is currently selling for. The cheapest of the 31 listings available for Lord Windgrace at the time of writing does come at $20.97 including shipping, which suggests that players should be prepared to pay upwards of $23-$25 for this card.
Notably, because this is an older foil, there will be a lot of listings for the card at Lightly Played simply because of the warping that the traditional variant of Lord Windgrace experiences. There isn’t really a significant difference in price between Near Mint and Lightly Played variants, but Moderately Played and Heavily Played copies of Lord Windgrace have been going for about $19.98 according to recent sales, which is a small discount.
There are some reprintings for Lord Windgrace since the 2018 precon, but none of these cards are widely available, and therefore go for premiums. If you’re interested in a nonfoil copy of this card, Lord Windgrace has a Special Guest reprint from Lost Caverns of Ixalan that, for the most part, is more expensive regardless of the variant. Most copies and sales for the card are available at $25 and up, but there are some outliers going for as low as $6.91. Just don’t count on finding these when shopping for the card.
The most expensive variant of Lord Windgrace is a Secret Lair release. This card seems to sell for about $67 a majority of the time, but unlike most Lord Windgrace variants, this one is climbing down in price. This is yet another variant of the card that is exclusively available in foil.
Finally, there is a much cheaper variant of Lord Windgrace, but this is an oversized card and is not considered legal for Sanctioned play. This copy of Windgrace is worth about $3.
The Future
Lord Windgrace’s demand started to increase right as World Shaper was revealed, but the card didn’t actually start spiking until weeks later. Looking at the current state of the card suggests that Lord Windgrace’s spike isn’t quite done, either. While this Planeswalker is a perfect fit for World Shaper, the card is strong in almost any Commander deck that can play the card’s color identity. As long as you’re using Fetch Lands, Lord Windgrace is a decent inclusion.
That said, this is a Commander Precon-based price spike at the end of the day, which likely means that, once focus moves on to newer MTG cards, the demand for Lord Windgrace will go down, followed by its price. While this is the common pattern that occurs with precon and Commander-based price spikes in general, it might take a bit longer for Lord Windgrace to feel the effects.
This is partially due to MTG Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender not having preconstructed Commander decks. While not 100% confirmed for Avatar, this means that the Edge of Eternities precons will become the easiest way for new players to get into Commander. Universes Beyond sets jumping into different IPs is a great way to attract new players, which could unintentionally cause demand for these products to last longer than usual. If that’s the case, demand for upgrades to World Shaper may also last.
That said, like all great Commander spikes, there is a good chance that Lord Windgrace will eventually drop. There’s no way to totally tell the future, however, as truly anything can happen. Regardless of where Lord Windgrace ends up, it should continue to be a powerful addition for all kinds of Commander decks.
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