Wizards really isn’t beating the “endless spoiler season” accusations any time soon. We all expected, and received, a batch of Avatar previews during Tuesday’s First Look stream. Pretty much nobody expected we’d get 100 more previews just a couple of days later, however. All of this early action has sent player hype through the roof, and that’s starting to affect the secondary market. This past month, classic MTG Ally support card General Tazri has seen a huge price spike.
As the San Diego Comic Con Katara promo revealed last month, the Ally creature type is back in a big way with Avatar. We saw a few more support cards during this week’s previews, too. General Tazri is the ideal Commander choice for a deck full of these new cards. It’s also a relatively obscure mythic rare with just a single printing to its name. The spike we’ll be looking at today is impressive, but it may well be just the beginning for this lauded legend.
A True Ally Among Allies
- Mana Value: 4W
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Ally
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: When General Tazri enters, you may search your library for an Ally creature card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
WUBRG: Ally creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of colors among those creatures.- Stats: 3/4
General Tazri has a ton going for it as a potential Commander for an Ally deck. Allies is a type spread over all five colors, and Tazri, thanks to that activated ability, counts as a five-color Commander. This means you can run all the allies you want alongside her, regardless of color. This includes the new five-color Aang we saw back in June, as well as any other new Allies that arrive with the set.
This alone would honestly be enough to account for the General Tazri MTG price spike. There are no other legendary Allies, Aang aside, with a five-color identity. This means that Tazri isn’t just your best option for a five-color Allies deck, but pretty much your only option.
On top of that, Tazri offers a ton of support to a dedicated Allies deck, too. Getting to tutor any Ally you want on entry is huge, especially in Commander. You can use this to grab a silver bullet for your current situation, like Tuktuk Scrapper. Alternatively, you can use it to support a ‘hidden Commander strategy with something like the new Aang. In any case, it’s a fantastic ability.
Tazri even offers an activated ability that can buff your board by +5/+5 with ease. This ability isn’t incredible, due to its restrictive cost, but it really doesn’t need to be. It’s there as an option, and Tazri is just fine without it. When you take all of this into account, as well as the fact that Tazri has only received one printing back in 2016, the reasons for the spike become clear. As Avatar specs go, this is as close to a sure thing as you’re likely to find.
The General Tazri MTG Spike
In terms of the spike itself, General Tazri has gone from a $0.43 MTG card in mid-July to a $1.70 card now. That represents a jump of over 295% in just a few weeks, which is good going for any card. That’s just the market price, too. We’ve seen sales as high as $2.19 for the card, eight of which occurred just today. Right now, there are listings at $2.99 and $6.25, too, so we could well see more action in the next few days.
The catalyst for this spike appears to be a near-buyout of the card on July 24th. 297 copies of the card were sold on TCGPlayer on that day alone, in the $0.17 to $1.99 range. This lines up exactly with the reveal of Katara, the Fearless, so it’s safe to assume this was what caused such a rush of interest. Since then, Tazri’s price has been steadily climbing to where it is today, with regular sales on most days since. This week has been particularly good for Tazri, with 174 more copies sold since Tuesday’s First Look.
As of right now, there’s still a good amount of supply out there for Tazri. TCGPlayer has 123 copies listed currently, which is a lot for a card experiencing a spike like this. This likely indicates that we’re yet to see the card’s peak, since supply isn’t low enough to fully force the market’s hand yet.
Tazri comes from Oath of the Gatewatch, too, which is a pre-Booster Fun set. This means there are no alternate treatments to help fill demand here. The only other ‘version’ of the card is the Prerelease promo, which has just five listings, all upwards of $24.95.
A Leader For The Future?
The way things are looking right now, I could easily see the General Tazri MTG price spike continuing for a while. 295% is an impressive figure, but the card’s actual price is still sub-$2 on average. That leaves a ton of room to grow, especially for a one-off mythic rare from a fairly unpopular set.
That said, there are some other factors worth considering here. First of all, we’re going to be moving into Spider-Man previews in a couple of weeks. When we do, the collective hype will shift elsewhere, and we’ll likely see a big dip in interest for Allies, and by extension Tazri. That interest should definitely recover come November, as Avatar starts rolling out, but it’s worth bearing in mind in the short term.
It’s also worth noting that the demand here is purely driven by Commander, which can often be flimsy. We see obscure cards spike because of new Commanders all the time, and most of them don’t hold up in the long run. Tazri also has very real potential to receive a reprint in Avatar, as one of the ‘episode scene’ TLE cards. If this happens, any value the card has accumulated between now and then will likely be demolished.
In any case, Tazri is still very affordable right now, provided you can find copies in stock. If you’ve enjoyed Allies in the past, or want to try them out come Avatar, buying it now before it climbs any further could be the play.
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