On Monday, Wizards of the Coast made a huge ban announcement that would shake up multiple competitive formats. No format was affected more than Modern. Beyond having some powerhouses like The One Ring get the axe, four elite cards were also unbanned. As you might expect, chaos quickly ensued.
Players have been scrambling to try all sorts of different strategies with their “new” toys. This has caused some big shifts within the secondary market. Cards that synergize with the ones that were unbanned have increased in demand considerably.
Today, we’re going to focus on a powerful recursive creature that fits the bill nicely. While not every version of this card has seen a massive spike, the retro frame variant in particular has seen a major price increase that’s worth discussing. We are, of course, talking about Arclight Phoenix.
Arclight Phoenix
Arclight Phoenix has been a force to be reckoned with in Pioneer for a long time. Alongside the all-powerful Treasure Cruise, the Izzet Phoenix deck is built to cast a flurry of spells to help bring Arclight Phoenix back from the graveyard over and over.
As strong as Arclight Phoenix has been in Pioneer, though, the card has made very little noise anywhere else over the last few years. Treasure Cruise being banned in Modern and Legacy definitely plays a role. In order to maximize Arclight Phoenix, you really need efficient ways to churn through your deck and discard copies of Arclight Phoenix from your hand.
This is where the recent unbans come into play. Faithless Looting fills both these roles nicely. With “free” spells like Manamorphose in the mix, resurrecting Arclight Phoenix on turn two after discarding it to Faithless Looting is a real possibility.
Faithless Looting has opened the door for a variety of different Arclight Phoenix builds to see some love. Some players have even flocked to mono-red Phoenix, which is a strong option on a budget.
The ban announcement did a lot to rejuvenate interest in the Modern format, as the number of registrants for each Magic Online Modern Challenge this week far exceeded the number of participants in these tournaments last week. As such, it’s not too surprising to see the demand for an unlocked build-around like Arclight Phoenix rise significantly.
The Spike
What’s interesting is that the biggest spike by far specifically occurred for the Ravnica Remastered Retro Frame variants of Arclight Phoenix. Prior to the ban announcement on December 16th, Arclight Phoenix consistently sat between $1.40 and $1.50 for over a month. Since Faithless Looting got unbanned, the price of retro frame Arclight Phoenixes has climbed.
Based on TCGplayer market price history alone, near-mint retro copies of Arclight Phoenix peaked yesterday at $5.52. This correlates with roughly a 305% price spike, which is already a big number, however, current sales suggest that the spike may be even larger.
On December 19th, most near-mint retro Arclight Phoenixes sold for over $8. As things currently stand, the cheapest sales listing on TCGplayer at the time of writing is $11.22, which equates to nearly a 700% price spike.
Not to mention, every Gold Star seller on TCGplayer has near-mint retro Arclight Phoenixes listed at over $16 apiece. There’s a good chance these numbers decrease a bit in the coming days as the hype dies down. That is, of course, unless Arclight Phoenix decks prove to be a dominant force in Modern moving forward. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how the metagame develops.
Other Arclight Phoenix Versions
Notably, other printings of Arclight Phoenix have not spiked anywhere near as hard as the Ravnica Remastered Retro Frame variant. Traditional Ravnica Remastered copies of Arclight Phoenix hold a market price of $2.93. This number is up since $2.19 on December 15th, but that’s hardly anything to write home about.
Guilds of Ravnica Phoenixes have jumped a bit more from $1.09 on December 15th to $4.03 today. It makes sense that traditional copies from the original set are worth more than those from Ravnica Remastered, especially because Guilds of Ravnica Phoenixes are mythic rares, not rares.
Still, there’s a big difference between current sales prices for Guilds of Ravnica Phoenixes and Retro Frame Phoenixes from Ravnica Remastered. Even other booster fun treatments from Ravnica Remastered, such as the borderless anime version of Arclight Phoenix, haven’t ballooned as much in price. Borderless anime copies are up to roughly $6.73.
This may very well be because the retro booster fun treatment is the most popular. Many players love the old-school vibe. The good news here is that if you’re looking to craft a Modern Phoenix deck but want to keep costs down, there are plenty of Arclight Phoenix variants that you can pick up for cheap.
