Unsurprisingly, thanks to the concise themes of the Lorwyn Eclipsed precons, each deck has tons of unique synergies and upgrades. Following the reveal of these decks last week, we’ve already seen a plethora of price spikes. While many of these were expected, following upgrades being identified, there are even more lesser-known underplayed upgrade options.
Now, as the prerelease date for Lorwyn Eclipsed draws near, we’re seeing some of these underloved options spike in price. This is exactly what’s happening to Grave Sifter, thanks to the Dance of the Elements precon. While the Elemental Typal theme of this deck makes an obvious home, Grave Sifter is arguably significantly underplayed in Commander altogether.
MTG Grave Sifter
Hailing the Commander 2014 precons, Grave Sifter is not a popular MTG card. According to EDHREC, fewer than 4,000 decks use this card, so many players might not know it exists at all. While this isn’t immensely surprising, since it’s a high mana cost card with a symmetrical effect, the value it offers is obscene.
In an ideal world, Grave Sifter can recur every creature in your graveyard, while each opponent only gets one. Realistically, it’s not even too hard to hit this ideal scenario either, since you just have to play a typal deck. Given how popular typal archetypes are in Commander, this really isn’t a difficult hurdle to clear. Realistically, the only real trouble lies in what your opponents can recur, but there are solutions to that problem.
As you might expect, targeted graveyard exile effects, like Nihil Spellbomb or Tormod’s Crypt, work wonders against individual opponents. Even Endurance can fill this role in a pinch, and that card is handily in Dance of the Elements already.
Even without tons of extra support, Grave Sifter should still offer great value since your deck is designed for it. Each opponent might get a powerful bomb, sure, but it’s hard to complain when you’ve recurred your entire graveyard.
The Spike
Despite all of the potential that Grave Sifter has in MTG, this card has been incredibly cheap for a long time. Considering how little Grave Sifter is played, and the fact that it has even been reprinted, this may not be a massive surprise. Still, this card really put the budget in ‘budget upgrade’ until recently.
Back in December, near-mint non-foil copies of Grave Sifter were selling for around $0.28 on TCGplayer. While cheap, demand for this card was so low that copies weren’t even selling at this price point. It was only around the holidays, with Lorwyn Eclipsed spoiler season approaching, that players seemingly remembered this card exists.
Since then, over 350 near-mint non-foil copies of Grave Sifter have been sold, putting strain on the once plentiful supply. Currently, there are only 25 near-mint non-foil listings left for the original Commander 2014 printing. Prices for these copies now start at $1.79, marking a 539% price spike.
Unfortunately for anyone after a bargain, while the Commander Anthology reprint has spiked slightly less, it’s no cheaper. Near-mint non-foil copies from this set currently cost $1.79, and there are only nine listings available. Notably, thanks to exorbitant shipping costs, there aren’t any cheaper, worse-condition copies available at the moment.
The Future
While supply is low across the board, realistically, Grave Sifter is not an expensive MTG card right now. Even post spike, this is a sub $2 card, which roughly keeps it within the budget range. That said, while things are cheap at the moment, demand could easily continue in the coming weeks and months.
Not only is it a fantastic upgrade to the Dance of the Elements precon, but more players seeing it may increase interest overall. Hypothetically, this could lead to the card fulfilling its potential as a risky typal powerhouse that enables huge value swings. Alternatively, this card could prove to simply not be reliable enough, since you can’t guarantee what your opponents are playing.
Ultimately, as always, we can’t predict the future of MTG, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. It does feel like there’s a good chance that the current spike won’t last long, but that’s far from guaranteed.
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