While we’re currently in the midst of the Star Trek spoiler season, MTG’s secondary markets haven’t been set alight by this new set. Despite the appearance of a new two-card infinite combo, we still haven’t seen a big Star Trek-based spike. MTG players may be waiting until the Commander precons are revealed next week, but elsewhere, markets are still moving.
Recently, for instance, we’ve seen Dark Matter Manipulator climbing due to competitive demand, and it’s not the only one. In the past couple of weeks, Knacksaw Clique has also been climbing steadily, now turning into an impressively expensive card.
MTG Knacksaw Clique
Originally released 18 years ago as part of Shadowmoor, Knacksaw Clique has never been particularly popular in MTG. In Commander, it only appears in around 4,000 decks, and it doesn’t see play in any 60-card format. Despite this rather disappointing track record, Knacksaw Clique is actually a pretty interesting MTG card.
Since it has an untap ability, it’s theoretically easy to trigger Knacksaw Clique multiple times per turn. Alongside an effect like
Cryptolith Rite
Cryptolith Rite
Creatures you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color."
, for instance, you can repeatedly tap Knacksaw Clique and half-pay for itself. This can easily allow you to steal a bunch of cards from your opponent, setting them back and putting you ahead.
Going beyond synergy, you can even go infinite with Knacksaw Clique by pairing it with
Cryptolith Rite
Cryptolith Rite
Creatures you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color."
and a card like
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Whenever you tap a nonland permanent for mana, add one mana of any type that permanent produced.
{5}{G}{U}: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may put a non-Human creature card from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
. With Kinnan in play, tapping Knacksaw Clique for mana will let it completely pay for itself, allowing you to use it infinitely. This lets you mill out your opponent’s deck, or multiple opponents in a format like Commander or cEDH.
Speaking of cEDH, this appears to be where the Kinnan and Knacksaw Clique combo has been making a name for itself. While this combo doesn’t use any particularly new cards, it seems it’s only recently been picking up steam and wins. In the past month, Kinnan decks using Knacksaw Clique have topped multiple major cEDH tournaments, showing the deck’s strength.
Low Demand But High Prices
Following this recent winning streak, it appears that demand for Knacksaw Clique has increased significantly. Admittedly, this wasn’t hard to do, as sales for this card used to be fairly rare. In the past month, however, a whopping 22 near-mint copies have sold, enough to push prices up dramatically.
Previously, thanks to seeing so little play, Knacksaw Clique used to be fairly cheap, selling for around $3.67 this time last month. After the recent sales surge, however, a near-mint copy will set you back a shocking $18.95. This marks a 416% price spike in just one month, though there are some slightly cheaper copies still available.
Currently, so long as you don’t mind a worse-condition copy, you can pick up a heavily played Knacksaw Clique for $13.10. Failing that, moderately played examples can be found for just under $14, but that’s where the savings end. With lightly played copies selling for $17.23 right now, prices are definitely up across the board.
Notably, foil prices have gone absolutely nuts, as new listings start at $349 for a lightly played example. Notably, the highest foil sale so far is just $200, but that’s still a ton of money. Clearly, cEDH players are eager to bling out their decks no matter the cost.
A Peculiar Pickup
Looking ahead, Knacksaw Clique is a bit of a weird one, as it almost feels like it ought to be more popular. In Commander, at the very least, this card could be good in theft-based archetypes. Technically, Knacksaw does already see some play in
Maralen, Fae Ascendant
Maralen, Fae Ascendant
Flying
Whenever Maralen or another Elf or Faerie you control enters, exile the top two cards of target opponent's library.
Once each turn, you may cast a spell with mana value less than or equal to the number of Elves and Faeries you control from among cards exiled with Maralen this turn without paying its mana cost.
, but only in under 200 decks.
Outside of this, Knacksaw Clique obviously has combo potential, as it doesn’t just go infinite with Kinnan.
Biomancer’s Familiar
Biomancer’s Familiar
Activated abilities of creatures you control cost {2} less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
{T}: The next time target creature adapts this turn, it adapts as though it had no +1/+1 counters on it.
and
Training Grounds
Training Grounds
Activated abilities of creatures you control cost {2} less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
also work as enablers, which gives this combo more applications. Even so, the card has struggled to see play, which suggests MTG players just aren’t interested.
Realistically, while Knacksaw Clique might feel better than its low play rate suggests, not a lot of decks need it. Combo decks, Faerie Typal decks, and Theft decks are the only ones that might be interested. Since none of these archetypes are massively popular, Knacksaw Clique is unlikely to explode in popularity.
While this could mean prices fall in the near future, nothing in MTG is certain. Should Knacksaw Clique continue to perform in cEDH alongside Kinnan, then prices may remain high. Given how old this Faerie is, it realistically won’t take much demand to keep prices higher than usual.
Ultimately, as always, we can only really wait and see what happens. Thankfully, in the meantime, we definitely won’t be bored, as MTG Star Trek spoilers are ongoing. Given how powerful some of the new cards already look, this set will likely make a major impact once released.
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