For a time, it seemed that the new Final Fantasy cards being revealed were making surprisingly small waves in the MTG financial markets. Typically, we’ll see multiple huge spikes whenever a precon gets revealed as players and investors alike flock to upgrades. This time around, however, the immediate reaction has been rather subdued.
While we might not have seen the usual tide of immediate spikes, Final Fantasy clearly has staying power. As the set’s extended spoiler season has continued, we’ve seen steady spikes to a range of synergistic cards and Commanders. Vivi, Noctis, and even Chocobos have all been causing movement in the markets recently.
Alongside all these fan-favorite characters, we’ve also seen a lot of attention dedicated to the set’s new Summons. Fusing Sagas and Creatures together, these new cards have unsurprisingly drawn a lot of attention. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that some stellar Saga support cards have been spiking in price recently.
Barbara Wright
Released within the Doctor Who Commander decks from 2023, Barbara Wright is a fairly simple MTG card. While there’s a lot of reminder text, Barbara only really has two abilities. For Final Fantasy, only one of these matters since the Doctor’s Companion Partner ability is specific to the Doctor Who franchise.
Thankfully, Barbara Wright’s other ability has much wider-reaching applications. By giving all Sagas you control Read Ahead, you can skip to the best bits and most powerful abilities. Ideally, this ability can be hugely powerful, even if it does reduce the overall value provided by a Saga.
Due to this potential reduction in value, you won’t always want to use Read Ahead, even with Barbara in play. Some Sagas, like There and Back Again, are all about the final chapter, but others offer consistent value. Elspeth Conquers Death, for instance, is a value machine, so it makes sense to start at the first chapter.
Even if Barbara Wright’s ability isn’t perfect for every Saga, it’s nonetheless very nice to have. So long as she’s on the board, each Saga gains a lot of utility, since you can choose what you need at any given moment. That said, Barbara Wright is arguably even worse with Final Fantasy’s Summons, since they’re creatures too.
By skipping ahead with a Summon, you’re not only missing out on abilities but also potential damage. Thankfully, there are ways around this, such as using Garnet, Princess of Alexandria to remove Lore Counters from Sagas. Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian can do a similar thing to Summons, which allows you to extend the value Sagas and Barbara Wright provide.
The Spike
Over the past few months, Barbara Wright hasn’t been a very popular MTG card. Thanks to essentially only having one ability, she’s basically confined to only seeing play in Saga-themed Commander decks. Even in these decks, she’s hardly an auto-include, even if she can provide some situational value.
Thanks to this rather low appeal, normal copies of Barbara Wright could be picked up for just $0.18 on TCGplayer. Now, thanks to added interest from Final Fantasy, the market price has increased significantly over the past couple of weeks. Around the start of May, over 500 near-mint copies of Barbara were sold, heavily reducing the available supply.
Currently, there are only 51 listings for near-mint normal variants of Barbara Wright available on TCGplayer. Thanks to this low supply, prices for these copies have shot up to around $1.26 on average. This is already a 600% price spike, but since new listings start at $1.31 and quickly increase from there, it may soon climb higher.
Sadly, while there are a couple of other variants of Barbara Wright, there weren’t any deals to be had. Extended Art copies have been all but bought out, and now new near-mint listings start at $4.99. The same has happened for Surge Foil copies, which are now going for $12 and $17, depending on the variant.
Unfortunately, even if you don’t care about condition, you’ll struggle to find cheaper copies of Barbara Wright. Given that she’s selling for around $1.30, Barbara is hardly the most expensive MTG card in existence. That being said, it seems this spike has definitely left the station already.
The Future
Looking ahead, Barbara Wright has very little going for her. As mentioned, she’s not really the strongest Saga support card, as she’ll always be somewhat situational. Unless Wizards prints a ton of Sagas that only get good at the end, Barbara is going to struggle to see consistent play.
With this in mind, it seems like the writing is on the wall for Barbara once the Final Fantasy hype dies down. She might pop up again whenever a new set with Sagas is released, but I wouldn’t expect the world from her personally. That all being said, however, Barbara Wright does have one trick up her sleeve.
Since she is a Doctor Who card, Barbara Wright exists in a weird Reserved List limbo, where it’s unlikely she’ll be reprinted. Technically, Wizards can reprint Universes Beyond cards, typically by giving them a different name and art. This treatment, however, is typically only discussed for needed and expensive reprints like The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters.
While it’s entirely possible that Barbara Wright could be reprinted eventually, it’s more likely that she’ll be usurped. If Wizards really wanted Read Ahead-enabling card, they could just create a new character to do that job. While this would solve the problem and potentially create a more interesting card, it’s unclear if Wizards would do this.
For now, as always, we’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds. Potentially, Barbara Wright might spike a little higher soon, but I wouldn’t expect that to last long.
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