Beginning-of-game effects are some of the highest variance cards that Magic: The Gathering offers. Starting with them in your opening hand puts cards into play before your opponent even has a chance to respond, commonly offering game-warping advantages. Drawing into them, after the starting turn, on the other hand, is a nightmare scenario that can cost you the game, in constructed, at least.
Commander games, which are not only a lot longer, but put players under a lot less tempo-based pressure, reduce the potency of the downside of beginning-of-game effect cards significantly. This makes some Leyline effects, like Leyline of Anticipation, very powerful in Commander. In fact, thanks to Avatar: The Last Airbender, this card is getting a lot more expensive.
Leyline of Anticipation MTG
Leyline of Anticipation offers a highly desired effect in any Blue Commander deck. Playing all of your spells at instant speed easily wins games, giving you the ability to be as reactive as possible. Thanks to the multiplayer nature of the format, playing spells right before your turn starts is even more valuable than usual since you’re bypassing three opportunities for various opponents to present interaction. Perhaps more importantly, this also gives your opponents far fewer opportunities to wipe your board with powerful sorceries like Damnation, something very common at most Commander tables. Obviously, starting the game with Leyline of Anticipation puts you in a great spot, but this effect is not at all underpriced at four mana, which even makes it a decent draw later in the game.
While Leyline of Anticipation is an enchantment that many blue Commanders would welcome with open arms, one extremely popular Commander from MTG Avatar is the direct reason for this card’s price increase. Fire Lord Azula has been causing all kinds of Flash effects to spike lately, and Leyline of Anticipation is no different.
Azula rewards players for casting spells during combat. This is undeniably a powerful effect, but it becomes even stronger when you can ignore timing restrictions. Instead of copying your instants, Leyline of Anticipation effects let you cast anything during combat. Copying a creature, like Roaming Throne, for example, can easily lead to a barrage of spells, taking over a game in an instant. This makes Flash enablers some of the most important cards for Avatar’s most popular Commander, causing a significant uptick in demand for Leyline of Anticipation.
The Spike
Unlike most of the MTG cards that see sudden spikes like this, Leyline of Anticipation has a ton of different variants. Between them all, the original M11 variant seems to have the lowest market average, so we’ll be looking at near-mint copies of that variant, in particular.
Like many other near-mint variants of the Leyline, this card was only worth about $2.50 about three weeks ago. The card has since seen a significant increase in demand at the end of November, resulting in a 220% price spike. This variant of Leyline of Anticipation’s current value exceeds its market average, as the cheapest near-mint copy plus shipping, at the time of writing, puts the card at about $8.50. That said, judging from recent sales of other near-mint variants, you can find some outliers at lower prices if you’re patient enough, but listings are rather inconsistent.
Fortunately, if you’re looking to save some money, there are discounts available if you’re willing to settle for a card in worse condition. There are worse copies available for the Leyline at about $5, but they’re commonly partnered with high shipping costs. These appear to be the cheapest copies of Leyline of Anticipation available across variants.
The Future Looks Bright
Following the common pattern for Commander-related price spikes, it’s quite likely that Leyline of Anticipation will fall from its high at some point. The card could continue to spike past this, but once new MTG cards hit the scene, Commander players will move on to a new focus, and Fire Lord Azula will cause a lot less demand for Leyline of Anticipation. Once this happens, we’ll discover Leyline of Anticipation’s new price point.
That said, Flash effects like the Leyline are good across all kinds of Commander decks. Fire Lord Azula may have shone the spotlight on these cards that Commander players needed to try in other decks. This also means that a new Commander that synergizes well with Flash enablers like this is somewhat likely to appear again in the near future. While this could mean Leyline of Anticipation’s price point is noticeably higher than its pre-spike level after demand settles, there is a ton of supply for this card, which could keep prices low.
All of that said, as we all know, truly predicting the future is impossible. Despite always being a decent Commander strategy, Leyline of Anticipation and other Flash enablers like High Fae Trickster were surprisingly cheap before Fire Lord Azula came along. Once the surplus demand vanishes, that could easily become true again, especially if future sets print even more variations on the same idea.