Following the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, typal archetypes have been all the rage in Commander. With plenty of new Elementals, Eleves, Faeries, and even Treefolk, this set has provided oodles of new support to existing archetypes. While this has caused no end of price spikes, many of the cards that have been climbing up recently are very archetype-specific.
In contrast, Faces of the Past is an MTG card that can go in any blue-aligned typal deck. Offering an insanely effective ability for remarkably cheap, it’s only a wonder that this card wasn’t the most expensive before. Now that MTG players have seemingly realized it exists, however, that is quickly changing. In one month, this 23-year-old card has already spiked just shy of 700% in price.
MTG Faces of the Past
Looking at Faces of the Past, it’s an absolute mystery how this MTG card ever managed to sell for under $2. Sure, this card can only hit creatures that share a type after something dies, but typal decks are huge in Commander. At the very least, building this into your own deck can ensure that you’re always untapped and ready to go.
Naturally, Faces of the Past works incredibly with sacrifice engines that you can use to abuse creatures with tap effects. This can be especially potent in decks like Zombie Typal, which have a natural affinity for sacrificing their own creatures. Similarly, Merfolk decks can make great use of this card, especially alongside Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca.
Unfortunately, one of the best typal archetypes that could hope to abuse Faces of the Past can’t really run it. Elves have no shortage of tap effects, like mana dorks, but very few blue-aligned Commanders. While Maralen, Fae Ascendant does technically change that, according to EDHREC, players aren’t exploiting this potential.
Instead, MTG players have taken to using Faces of the Past alongside Ashling, the Limitless. Thanks to countless Evoke effects sending Elementals to the graveyard, it’s easy to see the synergy here. At the same time, however, the Dance of the Elements precon only contains three Elementals with tap effects.
Despite this somewhat dubious synergy, Faces of the Past can still be more than worth playing, even without extra tap synergies. There’s a decent chance this card can tap down an opponent’s board after using removal, for instance. Considering you don’t even need to be the one using the removal, the value this card provides is truly wild.
With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that the recent attention has snowballed into an impressive price spike.
The Spike
This time last month, copies of Faces of the Past were, remarkably, selling for just $1.87. Considering the insane utility that this decades-old enchantment offered, picking up a copy at this price point would have been a steal. Sadly, over the past month, prices have climbed a long way since then, even though sales haven’t been that fast.
In the past month, only 22 near-mint copies of Faces of the Past have been sold. While lightly played sales are slightly stronger, with 60 copies sold, there’s clearly a major supply issue. Considering Faces of the Past has only been printed in Sourge as a rare, this lack of availability isn’t totally surprising.
Due to the especially limited supply, it really hasn’t taken much for the price of Faces of the Past to skyrocket. What was once a sub $2 MTG card is now selling for $15 on average. While the market price is still a long way off this figure, multiple copies have already sold at this rather impressive price point.
Thankfully, if you are still in the market for a copy of Faces of the Past, there are technically cheaper copies available. Moderately played examples, for example, are selling for around $7.70. Lightly played examples, meanwhile, are closer to the $10 mark, but prices do climb quickly after the rogue cheap listings.
A Future Staple?
Typically, we tend to be pretty optimistic that Commander-based price spikes won’t end up lasting too long. Since interests often change when a new set gets released, it doesn’t take long before demand decreases and prices fall. For better or worse, it doesn’t feel like Faces of the Past will follow this established trend.
Because Faces of the Past is good in so many different MTG decks, this card has the potential to be a staple in Commander. While it can’t be played in every deck since it’s colorless, the EDHREC stats for this card are remarkably low. Right now, this card appears in fewer than 3,000 decks, so there’s definitely room for it to grow.
Realistically, the only thing holding Faces of the Past back is the amount of supply that is available. Since it’s from Scourge, this card isn’t too accessible, but, thankfully, it’s not on the Reserved List or anything like that. This means it could easily be reprinted in a future set, or precon, should Wizards decide to.
If this does happen, there’s a good chance that Faces of the Past will fall in value, but it could easily climb again. With a new printing putting the spotlight back on this enchantment, players may rush to pick it up, keeping prices high. Ultimately, this is all speculation, for now, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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