Now that the spoiler season for Star Trek is over, we’d usually expect the MTG secondary market to be going mad. With four new precons to build around and upgrade, there’s tons of new synergies to exploit. This time around, however, it’s all quiet on the finance front, as no new upgrade has suddenly surged in price.
Instead, one of the biggest movers recently appears to be Teferi’s Imp, from way back in 1996’s Mirage. If anything, though, this spike is even more of an oddity, as this MTG card is just plain bad.
MTG Teferi’s Imp
While it’s no secret that MTG cards from 30 years ago are worse than modern designs, Teferi’s Imp is in a special class of terrible. Not only is this card incredibly weak, but its Phasing ability quickly puts you at a disadvantage. Since it’ll Phase Out during the upkeep after you play it, you’ll always discard before you can draw.
Considering Teferi’s Imp has basically no stats to back it up, for three mana, you’re playing against yourself by using it. With that in mind, it’s no surprise this card sees next to no play, appearing in no competitive formats and only 300 Commander decks.
If you really want to punish yourself and play Teferi’s Imp, your best bet is
Taniwha
Taniwha
Trample
Phasing (This phases in or out before you untap during each of your untap steps. While it's phased out, it's treated as though it doesn't exist.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, all lands you control phase out. (They phase in before you untap during your next untap step.)
. As a Commander that makes your lands Phase Out, this decidedly dubious Commander is basically a Phasing Soup deck. Notably, this deck is also not good at all, and there are fewer than 500 Commander decks built with Taniwha at the helm.
Technically, if you do want to use Teferi’s Imp for value, you could put it in a discard-focused deck like
Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist
Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist
Whenever you discard a creature card, you may pay {2}{U}. If you do, create a tapped token that's a copy of that card, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie.
. While this deck could use the discard effect every other turn, realistically, there are tons of better discard engines.
A Baffling Buyout
Despite being all-around terrible, at the end of October, 150 near-mint copies of Teferi’s Imp were sold on TCGplayer. These sudden sales almost completely cleared out the available supply, leaving just seven listings remaining. While this has pushed prices up considerably, it’s worth noting that this spike came completely out of the blue.
In MTG Star Trek, there’s no new card that has interesting or even relevant synergy with Teferi’s Imp. At best, the closest parallel you have is that Phasing sounds a little bit like Phaser, but even then, this is one of the worst Phasing cards around. Realistically, given that the majority of sales happened on one day, this is clearly a buyout by an investor or player.
Right now, it’s impossible to know whether or not this is some galaxy brain move ahead of a future set’s release. Given the power of Teferi’s Imp, we’re not exactly hopeful, but for now, it’s had an impact on the market. In the past week, this card has spiked by over 463% in price, and it’s now weirdly expensive.
At the moment, if you want to pick up a near-mint copy of Teferi’s Imp, it’ll set you back $5.75. Considering this card used to sell for around $1.02, this is an impressive spike; however, it’s pretty easy to avoid it. While lightly played copies have jumped to $2.49 after a similar sales surge, worse condition copies are far cheaper.
With moderately played examples starting at $1.19 and damaged copies for $0.50, picking up Teferi’s Imp on the cheap is definitely doable. Even at this price point, however, it’ll be hard to get your money’s worth from a power perspective.
Meme Machine or Bust
Given how bad Teferi’s Imp is, it feels like the only way this card will retain any value is if it becomes a meme. Similar to
Storm Crow
Storm Crow
Flying (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.)
, this card being uniquely bad could make it a cult classic, keeping players buying and playing it over time. While this is technically a possibility, the chances of this happening feel astronomically slim.
As funny as the art and flavor text on Teferi’s Imp is, this card has been around for 30 years with basically no one caring about it. Due to this, I really wouldn’t hold out much hope for this card’s future, but stranger things have happened in MTG.
Sadly, for anyone who does like the look of this Imp, I wouldn’t hold your breath and hope it becomes relevant, either. Phasing is currently at a nine on the Storm Scale, so seeing a new Commander built around that idea is phenomenally unlikely. Maybe, maybe, we could get something in Mystery Booster: Commander Edition 2, if that exists, but that’s just a pipe dream right now.
Notably, even if new support never materialized, Teferi’s Imp won’t ever be reprinted, since it’s on the Reserved List. While this could give its current value some staying power, long-term demand for this card should be basically nonexistant.
Ultimately, while Teferi’s Imp might not have much of a future, this MTG card… well, it sure does exist. Maybe you want to play it during your next Commander game to flummox your opponents, but that’s on you.
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