Despite Marvel Super Heroes’ spoiler season being underway, there’s still plenty of cards to be revealed. Even that handful, however, may be enough to cause price spikes. Grafted Skullcap, for example, saw a massive buyout during Marvel Super Heroes’ spoiler debut, and it might be due to a new artifact.
MTG Grafted Skullcap
Originally printed in Urza’s Saga, Grafted Skullcap is essentially an old-style Phyrexian Arena with a major downside. While you get an extra card each turn, Grafted Skullcap demands you discard your entire hand at the end step. While that rules this card out of a lot of Commander decks, Grafted Skullcap still does well in decks that play their hand out quickly.
Until now, Grafted Skullcap has seen all of its play in Premodern. The bizarre card engine primarily appears in Mono-Black Control as a card draw enabler, and as a silver bullet in Tinker lists. In both decks, Grafted Skullcap creates a soft lock with Ensnaring Bridge, drawing you cards while preventing opponents from attacking.
Despite this, Premodern doesn’t seem to be the cause of Grafted Skullcap’s price spike. The artifact experienced a major buyout during the Marvel Super Heroes spoiler season kickoff, suggesting that a new card may be the cause.
Among Marvel Superheroes’ currently revealed cards, The Ten Rings has some incredible synergy with Grafted Skullcap. Drawing back up to ten cards on your end step, you can stack The Ten Rings and Grafted Skullcap’s end step triggers to great effect. If you stack Grafted Skullcap first, you can discard your hand and draw ten new cards with The Ten Rings. In a discard-focused deck, you can also choose to do the opposite, creating tons of value.
The Spike
Both variants of Grafted Skullcap saw a massive buyout on June Second, with 113 copies selling between variants. That may not seem like much, but it’s left the remaining supply for Grafted Skullcap extremely bare for better-conditioned cards. Between all variants, only 16 near-mint or lightly played copies of Grafted Skullcap are still for sale on TCGplayer. This has understandably caused significant price spikes.
Among these sales, more than half of them were lightly played copies of Grafted Skullcap’s 7th Edition copy. With 59 copies selling on June 2nd, this variant shot up from its previous $0.95 price point overnight to $5.99, representing a 530% price increase.
Fortunately, if you don’t mind grabbing copies of Grafted Skullcap in worse condition, there are some cheaper copies available. Damaged Grafted Skullcaps, for example, are available for as little as $0.70 before shipping. If you don’t mind the artwork, lightly played copies of the Urza’s Saga variant are a bit cheaper too, starting at $3.29.
A Well-Timed Buyout?
While Grafted Skullcap has plenty of reason to see a price spike, things are a lot more uncertain for this card than usual. Despite the interesting synergies this card has with The Ten Rings, no one is really talking about it. This raises the possibility that Grafted Skullcap is a buyout target, meaning the sudden demand is artificial.
While many should expect Grafted Skullcaps to return to the market over time, players may not be interested in purchasing them for their inflated price point. This makes the card a rather risky buy at higher prices, so do your due diligence if you’re interested. That said, as always, it’s impossible to truly tell the future, as only time will tell what happens to Grafted Skullcap.
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