For better or worse, it seems MTG Avatar has no shortage of expensive cards. Some of the set’s best cards are selling for around $70 a copy right now, which is obscene. Unfortunately for budget-conscious players, this card, Badgermole Cub, is a cornerstone of multiple archetypes in Standard right now.
As if this format wasn’t already expensive enough, another MTG Avatar staple has just shot up in price. While it’s only selling for a smidgen over $5 right now, this is another card that players need playsets of. Worryingly, unlike the mythic Badgermole Cub, this card is just a humble uncommon.
Boomerang Basics
From the moment that Boomerang Basics was revealed, this card looked cracked. At the very least, it was a shoo-in for bounce decks in Standard, as it does everything that deck could want. After all, not only can it bounce one of your own cards for one mana, but it’ll also replace itself.
In a pinch, you could even use Boomerang Basics as pseudo-removal, to delay an opponent’s plans. Even if this situation doesn’t come up, tons of MTG decks have permanents with strong enters abilities that are worth bouncing. Thanks to this, the only real question was how much play this card would see once released.
It turns out the answer to this question is a lot. Since its release, Boomerang Basics has been popping up everywhere. Alongside seeing testing within Modern and Legacy, Boomerang Basics has been running rampant in Standard. Between Izzet Looting, Dimir Bounce, Temur Otters, and the new Izzet Lessons archetype, tons of decks want playsets of this card.
While this popularity was steadily climbing as players came to appreciate the card, it has really hit the limelight recently. Yesterday, the breakdown for the MTG 2025 World Championship was published, revealing that Boomerang Basics appeared in 52% of decks. With 153 copies of the card found in the main board of decks, there’s no denying this card’s popularity.
Technically, it’s still early days for Boomerang Basics as the Standard metagame isn’t entirely set in stone. While MTG Avatar has been out for a few weeks, there’s definitely still room for innovation and potential meta-breaking. That said, with how many decks are using this new staple right now, it’s unlikely to be going anywhere.
The Spike
If anything, the only direction it will be going is up, as demand for Boomerang Basics is at an all-time high. Since its release, well over 100 near-mint non-foil copies of this card have been sold each day. Following the stats for the 2025 MTG World Championships being revealed, however, sales have peaked at 549 copies in one day.
Unsurprisingly, this has put a pretty significant dent in the market, effectively clearing out all of the once reasonably priced supply. This lack of supply, faced with incredible demand, has pushed prices up extremely quickly. Now, copies of Boomerang Basics are selling for $5.30, including shipping, on TCGplayer.
Considering Boomerang Basics used to just be a $0.26 MTG card shortly after its release, this is a meteoric rise. The price may have been slowly climbing over time, but the recent 1938% increase is utterly insane. Since Boomerang Basics is just an uncommon, this sudden explosion might seem wild, but it’s actually part of the problem.
Unlike a lot of modern rare and mythic MTG cards, Boomerang Basics doesn’t have any fancy variants. Due to this, the chances of the card popping up in Collector Boosters are lower than usual, which has a significant impact on supply. Even then, foil copies don’t help all too much, since these aren’t preferred for competitive tournament play.
Sadly, even while they’re not preferred, foil copies of Boomerang Basics aren’t a cheap saving grace right now. Thanks to the immense demand, almost every copy, regardless of condition or foil-ness, has been bought out. Right now, the lowest you could hope to pay is around $4.54, although that is for a foil copy.
The Future
Looking ahead, the future does look incredibly bright for Boomerang Basics right now. Should demand continue, this could just be the start of the price spike, as there’s definitely room to grow. Considering how widely played this card is right now, this almost feels inevitable, although nothing is for certain.
While Boomerang Basics is definitely a staple, there are a few things going against it. For starters, it’s not as useful in Commander, so long-term demand from that format may be somewhat tempered. On top of this, there’s always the risk that Standard could rotate for one reason or another, pushing this card out.
Realistically, considering how widely Boomerang Basics is played at the moment, it feels like there’s little chance of this happening. That doesn’t mean the card is out of the woods yet, however, as it could prove to be too dominant. Should this card continue to boast play percentages around 50% and above, Wizards could decide to ban it.
From a power level perspective, it might seem odd to ban Boomerang Basics, as it’s hardly format-breaking. If this card is proven to have a detrimental, format-hemogenizing effect, however, then action may be warranted. We’ve already seen similar effects, like This Town Ain’t Big Enough, leave Standard, after all. Ultimately, it’s too early to say whether this is needed right now, since there haven’t been many major tournaments.
At the end of the day, since we can’t predict the future, we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully, we won’t end up with another massive ban wave in February, but only time will tell.
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