The MTG Financial markets have been experiencing massive swings lately, and it’s not just from one source. Not only has Avatar: The Last Airbender had a huge impact on multiple formats, but recent spoilers have also got players excited. Caltrops and Flourishing Defense, for example, have both soared in price due to new infinite combos. As you might expect, they aren’t the only cards affected, either.
Harbinger of Night MTG
Coming all the way from Mirage, Harbinger of Night has a bizarre ability that, under most circumstances, is a little difficult to take advantage of. Giving everything a -1/-1 Counter on your upkeep certainly threatens to add up over time, but it takes a while for this card to get going. Your opponents have ample opportunity to destroy the Harbinger before you even get one trigger out of it. Making things even more awkward, Harbinger of Night is not safe from its own ability, meaning that this card might cause its own demise.
All of that said, Harbinger of Night can still have massive implications for a -1/-1 Counter-themed MTG deck. Combining Harbinger of Night with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons or Nest of Scarabs, for example, creates a massive army of tokens at your Upkeep. These will die on the following turn to be replaced by another swarm, but they remain quite powerful alongside enters and dies triggers. Similarly, using Harbinger of Night with Proliferate effects can create a one-sided board wipe.
With -1/-1 Counters looking like a core focus for the upcoming Lorwyn Eclipsed set thanks to Blight, it’s no wonder that demand for this Reserved List card is starting to skyrocket. There’s also an entire Commander Precon deck, Blight Curse, focused around the controversial counter.
While we haven’t seen any cards that break Harbinger of Night yet, there should be tons of -1/-1 counter support coming to Lorwyn Eclipsed that synergizes with it. Due to its spot on the Reserved List, there’s also zero chance that the Spirit sees a reprint, which is more than enough cause for the card to see a somewhat speculative price spike.
The Spike
Harbinger of Night started to uptick in price all the way back in September when the Jund Blight Curse Commander Precon was revealed. 240 copies of the card moved over just a few days, far more than the total number of copies sold since then. Prices stayed steady until this week, when additional Lorwyn Eclipsed spoilers caused another price jump, moving 83 more copies. That said, a squeeze on supply has undoubtedly contributed to these low sales numbers, as only 105 copies of Harbinger of Night remain on TCGplayer. Of those, only 31 are in near mint condition.
Thanks to yet another surge in demand after the reveal of the Lorwyn Eclipsed Blight mechanic, the average near-mint copy of this card is currently far above the market average. Recent sales put near-mint copies at about $8.99, a 304% price spike from its $2.21 price point before the reveal of Blight Curse. Current listings for near-mint Harbinger of Night are even higher, starting at $9.75 and quickly going up from there.
If you’re looking to pick up Harbinger of Night for a bargain, you can save some money by going for a worse-conditioned variant. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any copies of the card for under $8, but there are some outliers in horrible shape going for $2.25, excluding shipping. For the most part, however, the deals available for Harbinger of Night aren’t too attractive.
How Good Will it Be?
The big question with Harbinger of Night is just how well it will synergize with the new cards coming in Lorwyn Eclipsed. Unlike Caltrops and Flourishing Defenses, there aren’t any currently spoiled cards that break Harbinger of Night. There’s a strong chance that some of the new support will be very good with a card like this, but just how good is unknown.
This means that Harbinger of Night’s future price point will be affected by just how strong the synergies between it and the unrevealed Lorwyn Eclipsed cards are. There’s quite a strong chance that the card will be a meaningful upgrade to Blight Curse, which justifies its current price point.
In the short term, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see another price spike for Harbinger of Night when Lorwyn Eclipsed spoilers kick off in earnest in January. Depending on how popular the Commander Precon is, demand for this card might be long-lasting, too. World Shaper showed just how influential a Commander Precon can be on the secondary market, causing price spikes for months after its reveal.
All of that said, it’s truly impossible to tell the future, as the contents of Blight Curse could synergize quite poorly with Harbinger of Night. This certainly seems unlikely, but it is a possibility. Until Blight Curse is revealed, players will likely be keeping an eye on Harbinger of Night due to its huge potential.
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