Lorwyn Eclipsed finally brought us our first new Commander precons in months, and it’s safe to say they hit these new decks out of the park. Both primary Commanders are exceptionally powerful and utilize unique themes that seem to resonate with EDH enjoyers.
While the precons do feature some nice reprints, there were some glaring omissions. Many of the strongest upgrades that didn’t receive a reprint have already risen in price, and it appears that this trend is continuing.
MTG Generous Patron
As a whole, Generous Patron is quite an interesting design. While its two triggered abilities do work well together to an extent, in order to draw your card right away, you have to grow an opponent’s creature which isn’t ideal. If you buff your own, you don’t get the card advantage bonus.
As such, your best bet to maximize Generous Patron is to play it in EDH decks that are centered around putting counters on opposing creatures. Legends like Chevill, Bane of Monsters, Xira, the Golden Sting, and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons are great examples of creatures that can consistently trigger Generous Patron every turn.
Nonetheless, the restriction on Generous Patron’s second ability has ultimately prevented it from being a more ubiquitous EDH option up to this point. The Elf shows up in only 25,300 decks according to EDHREC, even if it’s an incredible inclusion in the right build.
Thanks to the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, however, this number is continuing to grow. The Blight Curse Commander precon makes for a great home for Generous Patron right out of the box. That said, if you choose to put the secondary Commander, The Reaper, King No More at the helm, Generous Patron becomes even more reliable as a card-drawing machine.
Beyond its applications with the legends from the Blight Curse precon, Generous Patron also synergizes with the newly printed High Perfect Morcant. While each individual Elf you play won’t trigger Generous Patron since your opponent is the one putting the -1/-1 counter on their creatures, you will get to draw a card each time you activate High Perfect Morcant’s Proliferate ability. With all these new applications, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Generous Patron has seen a big increase in demand.
The Spike
After Generous Patron earned a reprint in the Counter Blitz Final Fantasy Commander precon, the card quickly became extremely cheap. From then, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that the card even managed to crack the 30-cent mark.
Once the Blight Curse precon got revealed in its entirety, however, demand immediately skyrocketed. Over 1,000 copies of Generous Patron proceeded to sell over the next two days, causing supply to quickly dwindle.
As of today, there are only 24 near mint listings for the Final Fantasy Commander printing of Generous Patron, which has contributed to the card’s price skyrocketing. As a result, Generous Patron’s average near-mint market price on TCGplayer has jumped to $5.44, a 3100% increase from its low of $0.17 over the last month.
Unfortunately, for those hoping to pick up Generous Patron on a tight budget right away, there aren’t any cheaper, alternate printings. The only other traditional printing is from Battlebond, which has even lower supply with only four near-mint, non-foil listings available. Current listings start at $13.50, with multiple recent sales matching that price.
The Future
As is typical for precon-based spikes, Generous Patron’s price tag could easily fall in the long-term. The Lorwyn Eclipsed precons are receiving a ton of hype, but new sets and precons are on the way. The next set, TMNT MTG, even features a five-color precon that’s bound to garner plenty of attention. With it, we can expect a drop in demand for Generous Patron.
Still, until we get closer to the release of TMNT, we could see Generous Patron’s price rise even further. After all, some other cards that have experienced precon-centric price spikes, like Atomize, have kept ascending since the initial wave.
At the end of the day, though, it’s impossible to predict the future with any degree of certainty. While we can analyze past trends, we’ll just have to wait and see how prices shift moving forward.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew!