As the release date for Secrets of Strixhaven draws near, it seems the MTG markets are heating up. In part, this will be due to the consistently building hype for the set, but time is also a crucial factor. Now that it’s been three weeks since Secrets of Strixhaven’s spoiler season first started, many cards are simply selling out. For better or worse, this appears to be exactly what’s happening to Afterlife Insurance.
MTG Afterlife Insurance
Released as part of the MTG Clue/Cleudo set, Afterlife Insurance is a surprisingly popular MTG card. According to EDHREC, this instant currently sees play in over 17,000 decks, and it’s rather easy to see why. For two mana, this card can help you recover from board wipes and exploit Aristocrats synergies, all while being a cantrip.
Thanks to these fantastic upsides, it’s no wonder that Afterlife Insurance is a common addition to Teysa Karlov decks. Not only is this one of the most popular Aristocrats Commanders, but you can also double the Afterlife triggers with her. At the very least, this will give you tons of extra sacrifice fuel, allowing you to significantly further your game plan.
While this card is already capable on its own, it naturally gets better when copied and with token doublers. Similarly, cards like Elenda, the Dusk Rose and Mahadi, Emporium Master can spiral out of control using it. Now, the same is also true for the new Silverquill, the Disputant, thanks to their insane Casualty ability.
In theory, Afterlife Insurance solves the big problem that playing the new Silverquill presents. While this card does have tons of potential, you’ll burn through your resources incredibly quickly when abusing it. At a baseline, Afterlife Insurance naturally helps solve this, letting you replace whatever you sacrifice for more Casualty fuel.
While this is already a compelling reason to run Afterlife Insurance in Silverquill, the Disputant decks, you don’t need a massive Storm-esque turn. Instead, since you can use Casualty to copy this card, it really doesn’t take much to get tons of tokens. Unsurprisingly, this has led Afterlife Insurance to be a strong inclusion within Silverquill decks, appearing in over 1,380 lists so far.
The Spike
Thanks to Silverquill pushing up demand for Afterlife Insurance, it’s no wonder its price has spiked. Naturally, players were quick to cotton on to this new synergy, as demand surged on April 1st. Since then, sales have remained strong each day; however, that may change soon.
Not only have prices jumped dramatically in the past month, climbing from $3.50 to $11.34, but supply is incredibly low. Currently, on TCGplayer, there are just nine near-mint listings available, and five more for worse condition examples. These remaining listings are hardly hoarding supply, either, as there are 57 total copies up for grabs.
Considering around ten copies have been selling consistently per day, the remaining supply really won’t last long. If, or rather when, these run out, prices are bound to increase even more. This has already happened somewhat, as new near-mint listings start at $11.61, including shipping.
Unfortunately, even if you don’t care about card condition, there aren’t really any savings available anymore. With moderately played examples starting at $11.34, there’s no getting around this Afterlife Insurance price spike.
Price Purgatory
While the price of Afterlife Insurance is up across the board right now, there’s no guarantee it’ll stay there. After all, predicting the future of anything is difficult, let alone MTG, given its constant innovation. That being said, the future for Afterlife Insurance does seem pretty bright, thanks to its strong synergy in a fan-favorite archetype.
Realistically, the only thing that could knock the price of Afterlife Insurance is a reprint, and that’s definitely not out of the question. Unlike many Warhammer cards, which have been climbing in price, there’s no Universes Beyond weirdness holding Wizards back here. Realistically, Afterlife Insurance could easily appear in a future precon or bonus sheet without any faff at all.
Even with this in mind, however, there’s no guarantee that Wizards will reprint Afterlife Insurance anytime soon. Considering how few sources we have for reprints nowadays, we could easily be waiting a long while. If this does happen, Afterlife Insurance could definitely keep climbing in price, as even if demand falls, it’s unlikely to flatline completely.
Ultimately, as always, since we can’t predict the future, we’ll have to wait until it happens. Considering it could be months until the price of Afterlife Insurance settles, I definitely wouldn’t hold your breath till then. Still, it’ll be well worth watching where this card ends up, especially if you picked up some copies while it was cheap.
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