It’s no secret that, throughout 2025, Standard wasn’t exactly in the best state. Overpowered new cards required repeated bans, and degenerate strategies kept things from feeling fun. In 2026, however, things seem significantly better, with multiple new strategies emerging alongside returning archetypes.
All of these were on full display at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, leading to the event seeing widespread praise. Beyond this, breakout decks from the event have also seen a massive boost in popularity, pushing prices up across the board. Most recently, Harvester of Misery has seen a massive price spike, following the card’s role in the latest Pro Tour-winning deck.
MTG Harvester of Misery
Released back in 2024’s The Big Score, as part of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Harvester of Misery is a deceptively powerful MTG card. On the surface, a partial board wipe for five mana, or middling removal for two, doesn’t seem that great. It can do work in Commander thanks to the prevalence of tokens, but competitively it’s somewhat suspect.
When the right MTG metagame comes along, however, Harvester of Misery really comes alive. Thankfully, this is exactly what Standard offers right now, thanks to the prevalence of Badgermole Cub and Llanowar Elves. On top of these, many Elemental mana dorks and key cards like Gran-Gran are also viable targets for Harvester of Misery.
Due to all of these cards, the Dimir Excruciator deck was brewed up to specifically counter the existing Standard metagame. Utilizing the synergy between Doomsday Excruciator and Superior Spider-Man, this deck offered a very unique game plan. Propped up by new support like Deciet and plenty of removal, this once mediocre deck has now been truly supercharged.
Thanks to the new support, Dimir Excruciator ultimately took down Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed in the hands of Christoffer Larsen. Unsurprisingly, considering this strategy was previously slept on, this incredible performance has dramatically increased demand.
As usual, this has caused an immediate and impressive price spike as players rush to pick up the deck’s pieces. In particular, the price of Harvester of Misery has really shot up, thanks to the card’s unorthodox scarcity.
The Spike
Since it was released as part of The Big Score, Harvester of Misery is naturally a fairly rare MTG card. With cards from this weird bonus sheet set appearing in only 15% of Play Boosters, availability already isn’t fantastic. Factoring in there being 30 cards in The Big Score, all of which are mythics, and it’s no wonder they’re somewhat scarce.
Due to this rarity, copies of Harvester of Misery typically sold for around $3, with the lowest average price in January being $2.99. Prices did pick up slightly following the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, which introduced Deceit, but even then, it was only a $4 MTG card. Now, however, the price of Harvester of Misery has ballooned dramatically, following over 100 sales in the past couple of days.
Currently, a near-mint non-foil copy of Harvester of Misery will set you back around $22.98, including shipping. While this is already expensive, and a long way above the market price, sales have peaked at $28.97 already. Given there are only 15 near-mint listings left on TCGplayer, it may not be long before prices increase beyond this point, too.
Unfortunately, if you’re looking to pick up a copy of Harvester of Misery for Standard play, there aren’t many cheaper options available. Worse condition foil Extended Art copies are available for as little as $10, but these are hardly ideal. Since non-foil is preferred for tournament play, you’ll need to spend at least $15 for a viable Extended Art copy.
The Showcase Vault Frame variant of Harvester of Misery is, sadly, also no help, as foil prices start at $18. With non-foil prices currently starting at $21, there’s no escaping the current price spike.
A Suspect Staple
While we can’t predict the future of MTG, especially with seven sets releasing in 2026, Harvester of Misery does feel somewhat suspect. Since this card only really thrives in a metagame with a high density of two-toughness creatures, it’s hardly a guaranteed staple. Admittedly, there are tons of these cards in Standard right now, but the metagame could shift to counteract this strategy.
As much as the Standard metagame may naturally adjust over time, there are also potential bans on the horizon. On February 9th, Wizards will announce the latest MTG bans, which could theoretically hit Standard. At the moment, nothing feels too ban-worthy, but there have been complaints about Badgermole Cub previously.
If the metagame does self-correct, or Wizards steps in, Harvester of Misery could easily be pushed out. This may cause this Spirit to be pushed back into obscurity somewhat, just being a Commander card once again. Should this happen, its current price spike could easily crash to $5 or below.
Notably, if the Standard metagame doesn’t dramatically shift in the coming months, Harvester of Misery could become a mainstay. In theory, this could cause the price to balloon even further, as there’s precedent for The Big Score cards to be incredibly expensive. Simulacrum Synthesizer, for instance, is currently a $30 MTG card, and Harvester of Misery could easily follow suit.
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