Chandra, Spark Hunter, alongside a bunch of other red cards, are experiencing a sudden rise in popularity. When a seemingly unbeatable titan falls for the first time, who’s to blame them? Mono-Red won Spotlight Series: Planetary Rotation this weekend, putting two copies of the deck into a top eight dominated by Vivi Ornitier. Now, players are rushing to grab the only deck that has a proven strong matchup against Vivi Cauldron. Chandra, Spark Hunter is just one of the many cards that make this deck up.
Chandra, Spark Hunter
Chandra, Spark Hunter offers Mono-Red Aggro a sticky threat that can continually pressure turn after turn. Granting Vehicles Haste, as well as Crewing them for free, Chandra can consistently attack your opponent’s life total using her zero ability. Unless your opponent can remove Chandra herself, dealing with the Vehicles she creates isn’t a great strategy since she’ll just replace them.
In longer games, Chandra can also generate a lot of card advantage. Using her +2 ability can turn a flood of lands into some stronger cards to use. This gives Chandra, Spark Hunter something else to do if the Vehicles she creates are left alone. This, combined with the constant pressure that Chandra creates, allows Red decks to go deep into the game after getting a head start on the opponent.
This card plays a niche role in Mono-Red Aggro, so it may not surprise you to hear that Chandra, Spark Hunter is a sideboard card in the archetype. The card can dodge a majority of common damage-based removal in Standard with some smart play, and otherwise plays well into slower strategies like Azorius Control. The winning Red deck from Planetary Rotation had two copies in the sideboard. Multiple other Red decks in the winners metagame for the event ran a similar number.
Outside of Standard, Chandra, Spark Hunter is a strong inclusion in Vehicle Commander decks. Thanks to the recent rules change, players can now play Vehicles as Commanders. While Vehicles aren’t particularly popular Commanders at the time of writing, Chandra can play exceptionally well in those decks, essentially avoiding Crew costs that your Commander may need to pay.
The Spike
Like many of the spikes discussed recently, instead of Chandra, Spark Hunter spiking suddenly, the card has had a longer price climb over the course of a few months. That said, a sudden spike has accompanied this thanks to Red’s strong finish this weekend.
Since the end of June, Chandra, Spark Hunter has spiked from about $2.31 to $7.76, representing a 236% price spike. About $2 worth of that spike occurred over the last few days. This reflects the surge of demand caused by Chandra’s increasing popularity in Red sideboards. The card began seeing larger demand as red decks rose to power, selling at higher numbers in mid-August. Despite this, the most copies sold for Chandra were on the day it won Spotlight Series: Orlando.
Even though Chandra is a recent Aetherdrift Mythic Rare, there are still 309 copies of the card on the market, suggesting that the card can withstand a lot more demand before supply starts to affect prices. Despite this, most copies of Chandra, Spark Hunter are listed for $8 or more at the time of writing. Copies with lower listings seem to have high shipping costs attached.
Outside of Chandra’s traditional variant, there are a few more premium choices for players who want to bling out their decks. The Showcase Chandra, Spark Hunter is far more expensive than traditional variants, selling for about $18 on average. These are, unfortunately, only available in foil, which is notoriously bad in tournament play. I would not expect these to be very popular. Despite this, showcase copies are trending upwards in price, seeing a $6 price spike over the same time period as the other copies of Chandra.
First Place Finish Chandra, Spark Hunters, have a similar issue. Despite being much rarer, the Showcase version is actually more expensive. Only 56 copies of this card are currently available, and they sell for around $9.40. Finally, Fracture Foil copies of the showcase Chandra variant are going for a ridiculous $115.
The Future
Chandra, Spark Hunter is part of a larger movement of cards that are spiking thanks to Red’s success. Nova Hellkite, Razorkin Needlehead, Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, and even Scalding Viper are starting to see price increases thanks to Planetary Rotation. While there won’t be any big Standard tournaments for a little while, there’s a surprising amount of support for the format at the time of writing. Edge of Eternities Store Championships are currently underway, offering an $80 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to the winner of each event. Even better, the other promo cards up for grabs, Slickshot Show-Off, and Bitter Triumph, are also very powerful.
Store Championships aside, the current Regional Championship Qualifier season is also Standard. Anyone trying to participate in the upcoming Standard Regional Championships, likely occurring next year, will need to do well in one of these events. This means a majority of competitive paper MTG events, at the moment, are Standard. Considering that Vivi Cauldron is an $800 deck that will likely get banned at some point, it makes sense for players to look for other options to invest in.
So, as long as Red continues to have a strong matchup against Vivi Cauldron and is a cheaper option than the metagame menace, Chandra, Spark Hunter may continue to see demand, at least until interested players get Mono-Red together. Vivi Cauldron has about a 40% win rate against focused Red strategies, according to information from Planetary Rotation. The Vivi menace has a strong winning matchup against every other Standard deck.
As long as Magic’s flagship format remains a two-deck one, Chandra, Spark Hunter, alongside all of the other Red cards, are likely to experience a rapid price increase to reflect new levels of demand. Vivi Cauldron decks at Spotlight Series: Orlando were notably tuned for the mirror; however, this did make their Red matchup much worse. If, after Vivi adapts to Red, the deck’s matchup improves meaningfully, then demand for Chandra may disappear. In the short term, Red seems to be the only reliable way to fight Vivi Cauldron, but even that may not remain for long.
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