As much as it’s common for a new MTG set to contain exciting build-around Commanders, Reality Fracture more than delivered on that front. Not only did we get a precon that was packed with unusual yet powerful legends, but the main set was no slouch either. With 75 new Commander options, MTG players have been truly spoilt for choice.
Out of all of these, the five Elder Sphinxes are easily some of the most unique and exciting build-around options. Kwia Vigorbloom in particular enables some nuts synergies thanks to her ability to create Black Lotus tokens. As MTG players build around this ability, we’re now seeing prices climb, with a decades-old enchantment spiking hard.
MTG Lifegift
Originally released as part of 2005’s Betrayers of Kamigawa, Lifegift is a very rarely played MTG card. In Commander, this card appears in fewer than 10,000 decks, and it’s not hard to see why. Even over an extremely long game, the ceiling for this card is pretty low, as at most you’ll gain around 30 life.
Admittedly, gaining 30 life for just three mana isn’t half bad, though it takes a long time to happen. Even so, this card isn’t inherently awful, since you can exploit a steady drip feed. Lifegain-focused decks, like
Dina, Soul Steeper
Dina, Soul Steeper
Whenever you gain life, each opponent loses 1 life.
{1}, Sacrifice another creature: Dina gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power.
or
Blech, Loafing Pest
Blech, Loafing Pest
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on each Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake, and Spider you control.
, for example, are happy to have consistent lifegain triggers.
The same is very much true for
Kwia Vigorbloom
Kwia Vigorbloom
Flying, vigilance, lifelink, ward {2}
Whenever you gain life, create a colorless artifact token named Lotus with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add three mana of any one color." This ability triggers only once each turn.
, who only needs one lifegain trigger per turn. With this in mind, Lifegift can be a surprisingly consistent engine that helps churn out
Black Lotus
Black Lotus
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add three mana of any one color.
tokens. This can easily give Kwia enough mana to power through the rest of her game plan and breeze to victory.
While this makes Lifegift a potent addition to Kwia decks, it’s only in about 19% of lists. That is still a respectable bump of over 900 decks, but it shows Lifegift isn’t really needed. As consistent as it can be, Lifegain decks in Commander have no shortage of consistent engines.
Still, even if Lifegift isn’t totally needed and doesn’t create an utterly busted synergy, it’s not at all bad. Thanks to this, MTG players have still been using it, causing the price to creep up recently. Supply was already driven down thanks to Secrets of Strixhaven, and now Reality Fracture has made it skyrocket.
A Steady Spike
While Lifegift has been creeping up for a while thanks to
Blech, Loafing Pest
Blech, Loafing Pest
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on each Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake, and Spider you control.
, things really ramped up after
Kwia Vigorbloom
Kwia Vigorbloom
Flying, vigilance, lifelink, ward {2}
Whenever you gain life, create a colorless artifact token named Lotus with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add three mana of any one color." This ability triggers only once each turn.
’s reveal. Following the debut livestream of Reality Fracture, there’s been a notable increase in lightly played sales, although sales are still slow. Notably, due to this card’s age, lightly played is much more commonly traded than near-mint condition copies.
Since they’re more available, lightly played copies are also slightly cheaper, with prices previously sitting around $10.45. Now, however, following just 48 sales since Kwia’s reveal, sales have peaked at $23.13. As if that wasn’t enough, lightly played listings are even more dear right now, starting at $45.80, including shipping.
Thankfully, if you don’t want to spend quite this much, there is a heavily played copy of Lifegift going for under $23. Sadly, not only is this not exactly cheap, but there’s only one copy available at this price point, too. After this sells, $40 will be the cheapest copy, so escaping this price spike may be rather difficult.
As for near-mint condition copies, those basically aren’t available on TCGplayer anymore. Near-mint non-foil copies have entirely sold out, while there’s only a single near-mint foil for $150. While this is obviously absurdly expensive, it’s unlikely this price spike will last forever.
The Price of Performance
Realistically, while it’s not unheard of for older cards to be expensive, Lifegift just isn’t worth $45, let alone $150. It’s not all bad, thanks to being a fairly consistent lifegain trigger, but there are much more cost-effective options. Creature-focused cards like
Soul Warden
Soul Warden
Whenever another creature enters, you gain 1 life.
, for instance, are around $4, and
Blood Artist
Blood Artist
Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
is under $3.
Alternatively,
Horizon Chimera
Horizon Chimera
Flash
Flying, trample
Whenever you draw a card, you gain 1 life.
allows you to gain life through drawing cards, while
Sapseep Forest
Sapseep Forest
({T}: Add {G}.)
This land enters tapped.
{G}, {T}: You gain 1 life. Activate only if you control two or more green permanents.
offers consistent lifegain on a land. You can even use
Cosmos Elixir
Cosmos Elixir
At the beginning of your end step, draw a card if your life total is greater than your starting life total. Otherwise, you gain 2 life.
as a semi-consistent source of lifegain that doubles up as card draw. With all of these options for gaining life, Lifegift is a niche optional extra at best.
Due to it not really being needed, it’s hard to see how Lifegift will maintain its current price point long term. If sales slow or stop, prices will likely need to fall to renew any potential interest.
As much as we expect Lifegift’s price to plummet, there’s sadly no telling when it will happen. The same goes for any potential reprint of Lifegift, which would decimate the current price point. Ultimately, as usual, we can only really wait and see what happens in the coming weeks and months.
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