A few cards from the Family Matters Bloomburrow Commander Precon have been spiking lately. These cards happen to synergize strongly with a variety of different Commanders. This particular spike, Agate Instigator, seems to be quite powerful alongside some new MTG Duskmourn Commanders.
Agate Instigator
- Mana Value: 1R
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 1/3
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow Commander
- Card Text: Offspring 1R. Whenever another creature you control enters, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent.
Agate Instigator may look somewhat innocuous, but the card can do a lot of damage in the right hands. It’s basically an Impact Tremors that can create a copy of itself. Agate Instigator can pile on the hurt quickly.
This has its obvious synergies with the Bloomburrow Lizard subtype, which does have some Commander attraction, but the main reason why this card’s price is spiking seems to be due to early brews of some Duskmourn Commanders.
Agate Instigator namely appears in early builds around Arabella, Abandoned Doll and The Jolly Balloon Man. The card’s role in The Jolly Balloon Man seems to be attracting the most attention. Considering The Jolly Balloon Man is just one step away from Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, there are bound to be some nasty infinite combos attached to this card. Agate Instigator seems like a fantastic win condition if you can find a way to create infinite tokens.
Thanks to this increased attention, Agate Instigator has increased in price over the last few months. Starting at $4 at the beginning of August, the card has spiked up to $15.90 in recent sales. Extended art variants of the card have also been spiking in price, but the floor of the card started a bit
Notably, this increased attention may have inspired players to put Agate Instigator in other Commander decks. The card does see a ton of play across the format. Considering how popular of a card Impact Tremors is, seeing a creature that can create a copy of itself with the same effect be popular is not that surprising.
Past Duskmourn
Aside from seeing a lot of hype thanks to new Duskmourn Commanders, you can find Agate Instigator in a variety of different Commander brews. As mentioned previously, this is a popular inclusion in Lizard Commander decks inspired by Bloomburrow. As you may expect, this Instigator also shows up a lot in Commander decks based around Zinnia, Valley’s Voice, who is the Family Matters Precon Face Commander.
For past Commanders, Norin, the Wary, Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds, Anim-Pakal, Thousandth Moon, and Purphoros, God of the Forge are some of the more popular Commander options for Agate Instigator, according to EDHREC. Any deck that can abuse creatures entering the battlefield in large quantities is one that you may want to consider Agate Instigator for.
Read More: MTG Head Designer Confirms New Archetype Should Emerge in Duskmourn Standard
