The centerpiece of MTG finance right now is certainly Premodern. It all started when the fan-made format suddenly appeared on Magic Online, garnering significant attention and spurring innovation. So many Premodern games were played that the format saw its first ban in three years, creating new ground to explore.
Because Premodern’s metagame uses a lot of cards that don’t see play outside of it, all kinds of forgotten gems have been spiking in price over the last few months. Tsabo’s Web, a stax piece that shuts down lands, is yet another victim.
MTG Tsabo’s Web
In some MTG decks, there’s little reason not to play Tsabo’s Web. So long as its second ability has a reasonable chance of slowing your opponents down, this artifact is essentially a cantrip for two mana. Thanks to this, the artifact sees fringe play among many Commanders that synergize with it. Urza, Lord High Artificer and Meria, Scholar of Antiquity, for example, can tap the web for extra mana, while Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and Brago, King Eternal can draw extra cards off the artifact.
Outside of this, Tsabo’s Web doesn’t see tons of play in Commander, appearing in only 1950 decks according to EDHREC. While the card can be occasionally valuable, there just isn’t a ton of popular Commander lands that get impacted by Tsabo’s Web’s stax effect. That, however, is not the case in Premodern.
Shutting down lands that have activated abilities that don’t make mana, Tsabo’s Web is one of the best ways to combat Premodern Mishra’s Factory decks. The manland sees an absurd amount of play in the format across aggro, control, and combo decks, appearing in most Premodern Top 8 cuts. The card is particularly potent against UW Standstill and Oath of Druids decks, stopping Standstill, in particular, from winning the game at all.
Outside of Mishra’s Factory, Tsabo’s Web does catch some additional strays in Premodern, stopping Treetop Village, punishing tapped Wastelands, and occasionally catching some oddball lands like Cephalid Coliseum. Thanks to this, the artifact sees sideboard play in almost every Premodern Mishra’s Factory deck, which has caused its price to be pushed up significantly.
The Spike
Tsabo’s Web is in a bit of a unique spot thanks to a recent reprint. Despite all of its sanctioned variants seeing price spikes, the nonfoil Mystery Booster 2 reprint is significantly cheaper than the rest. While that may be the case, this variant of Tsabo’s Web saw the biggest price spike, percentage-wise.
Worth just $1.36 at the end of last year, Tsabo’s Web saw a massive surge of demand when Parallax Tide‘s ban was announced on January 18th. This change made Mishra’s Factory decks significantly more viable, causing players to snatch multiple copies of this artifact up. While this caused Tsabo’s Web to temporarily spike to $11.90 at the beginning of February, the card has since settled at $8.52, representing a 526% price spike.
Sadly, finding a deal on Tsabo’s Web seems extremely difficult, as no copies are available for under $8.50 at the time of writing. Thanks to the Mystery Booster 2 Tsabo’s Web being a recent reprint, worse-conditioned copies of the card are basically nonexistent.
If you do want to buy an older variant of Tsabo’s Web, things get much more expensive very quickly. The cheapest you can find an Invasion variant of this card for is about $30, while near mint copies exceed $40. Foils are even worse, with near mint Invasion foils going for $250, while the Mystery Booster 2 variant isn’t even available in foil. There is a World Championship variant available with recent sales at $10, but this card is not tournament playable.
The Future
Like many Premodern cards, Tsabo’s Web is a bit difficult to try to predict. While the card’s cheapest variant has already come off a high, as things stand, it really seems like the only place for Tsabo’s Web to go is up. Mishra’s Factory decks aren’t going anywhere in Premodern, which means Tsabo’s Web will likely continue to have a place in the format. With sales consistently pushing the market averages, it looks like Tsabo’s Web may be set up for a slow climb.
That said, another massive Premodern shift could easily change this. A future ban, for example, could cause non-Mishra’s Factory decks to become much more poorly positioned, which could affect the demand for Tsabo’s Web. If the Factory itself left the format, Tsabo’s Web would likely stop seeing play completely.
There’s also a very real chance that Tsabo’s Web could be reprinted in a future Bonus Sheet. Considering that we just got a reprint for the card, it does seem unlikely, but many MTG cards end up seeing constant reprints, so it’s always a possibility.
As always, predicting the future is impossible, but Tsabo’s Web doesn’t look likely to get significantly cheaper anytime soon.
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