With Avatar: The Last Airbender preview season now in full swing, Spider Man is well and truly fading into the rear view mirror for most MTG players. This was already happening to an extent, given the set’s lackluster reception, but the last nail is definitely in the coffin now. That said, Spider Man is still influencing Commander, and by extension, the secondary market. Thanks to the most popular Commander from the set, The Lost and the Damned is experiencing a serious MTG price spike.
Cross-IP Synergy
Unless you picked up a Warhammer 40,000 precon back in 2022, The Lost and the Damned likely isn’t a card on your radar. It’s a very specific Izzet enchantment, rewarding you for playing lands and casting spells in non-traditional ways. This is a solid effect in some decks, but so far it’s been a niche piece in the grander scheme of Magic.
With the advent of Spider Man, however, that all changed. The most popular Commander from that set, by a significant margin, is Norman Osborn//Green Goblin. This is a Grixis legend all about discarding cards then casting them from your graveyard via Mayhem. This will then trigger The Lost and the Damned, giving you access to a steady stream of 3/3 tokens.
Since Green Goblin is a deck that tends to play a lot of spells, to keep looting through your deck and get the momentum going, it very much appreciates the extra board presence this card provides. It also opens the door to some surprising combo wins. Looping Attunement with Surly Badgersaur out can see you casting a ton of spells from your ‘yard. This will make you a ton of 3/3s, who can all easily gain Haste if you find and dump Anger during your mad looting spree.
The Lost And The Damned MTG Price Spike
Due to this newfound jump in use, The Lost and the Damned is experiencing a bit of an MTG price spike. Around September 9th, we saw a considerable increase in interest for the card, with 20 copies selling in the span of two days. This lines up with the week after Spider Man previews ended, where players often start to buy cards to build new decks. At this point, the price was sitting at around $2.05.
This hot streak continued for the next few weeks, with 17-20 copies of the card selling every couple of days up until October 9th. The price began to rise here, too, climbing to around $3.90. Since then, daily sales have gone up and down, but the price has kept climbing, up to where it sits today at around $6.83. This represents an overall spike of 233% in just under two months.
This is impressive, but it also looks like we haven’t seen the ceiling for this card yet. There have been a few scattered sales at higher price points, as high as $7.95 in some cases. While these could be red herring sales, they could also be indicators of where the card is going next.
Given how limited the supply is here, I wouldn’t be surprised. The Lost and the Damned is a card with only one printing, after all, in 2022’s Warhammer 40,000 Commander precons. This means there just aren’t as many copies of this floating around as there would be for a random rare in a mainline set. Right now, there are only around 30 near-mint copies available on TCGplayer, and with 13 sold in the last two days, that batch may not hold out for long.
High High Hopes
As with every MTG price spike, it’s impossible to predict where The Lost and the Damned will go in the future with 100% accuracy. Card prices change suddenly all the time, for all manner of reasons. That said, based on everything we know right now, the card seems like a pretty safe bet.
For starters, Green Goblin, the deck its value is currently tied to, is on a great trajectory at the moment. It’s very popular with both casual and competitive players, and has even earned a spot in the hearts of the cEDH community. Legends on this level have a longer shelf life than most, which means the staple cards for the deck are likely to hold value for a while.
Even if Green Goblin goes out of style tomorrow, Wizards has been printing plenty of other cards that work well with The Lost and the Damned lately. Whether it’s Gwen Stacy//Ghost Spider from Spider Man, or Iroh, Grand Lotus from the upcoming Avatar, casting spells from somewhere other than your hand is fairly common now. If Iroh decks take off, which seems likely, The Lost and the damned could easily become a staple there, too.
There’s also the issue of reprinting the card. As a Universes Beyond card, Wizards can’t just drop this into a future mainline set willy-nilly. This means that, outside of another Warhammer collaboration or re-release of the original decks, we probably won’t see more supply of this card for a while. Combined with increased demand, that’s a recipe for this card to get even more expensive in the future.
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