Beyond just being iconic, the mana system in Magic: The Gathering is at the core of the game’s balancing. More powerful spells typically cost more mana, and that remains true even after decades of power creep. Thanks to this, getting around Magic’s mana system with free spells and cards that cheat in others can be incredibly powerful.
With this in mind, it’s little wonder that cards like Stronghold Gambit have long had the attention of MTG players. While this card doesn’t see a great deal of play, it nonetheless has huge potential and is surprisingly competitive. Thanks to this, copies of this card have been selling steadily, causing supply to wane and prices to soar.
MTG Stronghold Gambit
Originally released in Nemesis, in theory, Stronghold Gambit lets you cheat in any creature from your hand for cheap. While this may sound absurdly powerful, it offers the same ability to each of your opponents. Since only the cheapest creature, or creatures, are actually allowed in, this creates a weird race to the bottom.
Technically, it is possible to abuse Stronghold Gamit to cheat in whatever you want. If your opponents have no creatures in hand, or only high-cost threats, for example, you can play around that. Admittedly, with four opponents, this is much more difficult in Commander, and even competitively, it’s often more trouble than it’s worth.
Thanks to this, Stronghold Gambit only really sees play in Legacy sideboards within Reanimator decks. If your opponent doesn’t have many creatures or is susceptible to a Thoughtseize, Stronghold Gambit can be insanely powerful. While it is incredibly effective in this role, this card is unlikely to ever make the jump to the main deck.
Outside of Legacy, Stronghold Gambit does see fringe Commander play; however, it’s a bit of a meme there. Looking at EDHREC, it’s often found alongside other minigame cards like Goblin Game and Illicit Auction. Appearing in fewer than 1,000 decks, this card is hardly a Commander staple.
Thanks to this steady demand from Legacy and a smidgen from Commander, supply has been slowly draining for decades. Now, at long last, the price of Stronghold Gambit has absolutely exploded, surging by over 1000%. As impressive as this is, however, it’s unclear how long this spike may last.
Up 1157% in One Month
While there has been a slight uptick in sales as supply decreased, Stronghold Gambit isn’t a traditional price spike. There’s no new driving factor here empowering the card’s popularity, for instance, as it’s been sideboard tech in Legacy for decades. Similarly, there’s been no big lucrative buyout designed at pushing prices up for a quick return.
Instead, it appears that after 26 years, the supply of Stronghold Gambit has simply run out, as there are basically no copies left on TCGplayer. After 92 lightly played sales in the last month, in fact, there are just two listings left in this condition. If you do want to pick up one of these, the cheapest is currently $14.96, including shipping.
Considering lightly played copies of Stronghold Gambit used to sell for $1.19 in early June, this is one hell of a price spike. Sadly, even if you don’t care about card condition, there’s no escaping it, either. Right now, the almost $15 lightly played copy is actually the cheapest on TCGplayer, as near-mint examples start at $40.
Rare But Not Reserved
Curiously, while Stronghold Gambit feels like the kind of weird old card that’s on the Reserved List, it actually isn’t. Since Nemesis was released in 2000, this is just a regular old MTG card that could be reprinted whenever. While the chances of this happening might be slim, since it’d be a weird effect to reprint anywhere, it’s definitely not out of the question.
Considering scarcity is the big driving factor in this Stronghold Gambit price spike, any reprint would likely decimate its value. Until this hypothetical happens, however, this card is unlikely to go anywhere. Even though it’s not the most popular card, the genuine trickle of demand should keep sales happening.
That being said, while there is a little bit of demand, as a sideboard card, Stronghold Gambit is hardly an unmissable must-have. Thanks to this, there’s bound to be a point where MTG players stop buying it, since it’s not worth the cost. While Legacy is an expensive format, MTG players will still want to get their money’s worth, after all.
Ultimately, as always, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to Stronghold Gambit in the future. For now, however, it’ll be well worth digging through your collection to see if you’ve got any copies hanging around. If you do, you could be in for quite a nice payday, especially if you’re sitting on an eitre playset.
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