As players continue to experiment with a variety of Duskmourn: House of Horror cards across different Constructed formats, it’s becoming clear that this set is quite powerful. There are a ton of very strong cards that are worth building around. From Unstoppable Slasher combo decks to absurdly fast Leyline of Resonance aggro decks, we are seeing major metagame shifts in Standard, Pioneer, and beyond.
While the entire set is strong, no card has had more of an impact across multiple formats than Abhorrent Oculus. Abhorrent Oculus does take some effort to maximize, given the restrictive additional casting cost, but the payoff is enormous, as Abhorrent Oculus is a game-breaking bomb. Now that players are starting to catch up to how good it really is, Abhorrent Oculus has seen an enormous price spike basically overnight.
A Massive Spike in One Day
- Mana Value: 2U
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 5/5
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: As an additional cost to cast this spell, exile six cards from your graveyard.
Flying.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, Manifest Dread. (Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.)
Duskmourn: House of Horror was officially released on September 27th, which was only a few days ago. At that time, non-foil copies Abhorrent Oculus’s sat between $10 and $11, according to TCGPlayer market price history. Since then, Abhorrent Oculus has ballooned to $40, which is a big difference.
This huge spike occurred almost entirely from September 28th to September 29th. On September 28, Abhorrent Oculus held a price tag of $13.52. By September 29th, that number increased to $35.55, over a $22 difference. Now, the card’s price has ballooned even further to the $40 mark, which is seriously impressive for a modern mythic.
Of note, this price spike does appear to be genuine. On September 30th alone, there were over 40 separate sales made of Abhorrent Oculus in non-foil, and almost every copy went for at least $30. Meanwhile, going back to September 28th, nearly every sale hovered a little over $10. This begs the question: what caused this sudden shift in price in such a short time frame?
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Emergence in Standard and Modern
On September 28th, Abhorrent Oculus had a major breakout performance in Standard in an Azorius self-mill shell. This deck is quite similar to the Azorius Monastery Mentor decks that made a splash before rotation. The goal is to utilize cards like Picklock Prankster to mill yourself, then use efficient tools such as Helping Hand to resurrect your potent three-drops.
Abhorrent Oculus has proven to be a major upgrade for this strategy. With enough mill effects and cantrips, hard-casting Abhorrent Oculus isn’t too difficult. As a 5/5 Flier, it closes the game quickly and is difficult to kill with damage-based removal. Of course, you can always bypass the additional casting cost by simply reanimating it with Helping Hand.
Azorius Oculus managed to win a Magic Online Standard Challenge on September 28th. This wasn’t the card’s only elite performance, though. On September 29th, a playset of Abhorrent Oculus appeared in top eight of a Modern Challenge in Dimir Murktide. Just like in Standard, this deck utilized ways to bring back Abhorrent Oculus from the graveyard (in this case, with Unearth.) Discarding Abhorrent Oculus to Psychic Frog in order to return it to play with Unearth is a powerful option to have.
Now that this card has showcased its prowess as a multi-format staple, it makes sense why it went up in price so fast. This card is certainly worth watching moving forward, as it could be poised for long-term success.
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