Many of Magic’s recent secondary market price spikes have been thanks to the increasing popularity of the Standard format. Standard is now the format of choice for players attending Regional Championship Qualifiers, and the increase in demand for Standard cards is definitely hitting the secondary market.
Last week, we discussed the sudden spike of Preacher of the Schism thanks to its increase in popularity in Rakdos lists from multiple formats. While that card has continued to rise in price this week, it has been overtaken by another card seen in Rakdos decks across formats. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor is now a chase card from The Brothers’ War!
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
Even though this Brothers’ War Mythic has began spiking in previous weeks, the recent heights reached with Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor’s secondary market price may not be something many MTG players expected.
Gix may be the new poster boy for Magic’s Standard format. The card has multiple competitive results in various Standard archetypes. Esper Legends, Rakdos, Golgari and Dimir Aggro all want to play this card in Standard. While these are most of the decks where Gix sees play, almost any black deck in Standard uses this card in some capacity.
Gix also sees some moderate play in Pioneer and Modern. The card appears in Mono Black decks in Pioneer, and sees the odd Scam appearance in Modern.
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor allows creature-based strategies an unrivaled form of card advantage in Standard. The Praetor doesn’t just trigger once if you manage to connect with a creature in combat; it will trigger for each body that manages to hit your opponent. Gix even fixes flooding situations, allowing you to discard cards from your hand in exchange for cards on top of your opponent’s library.
Yawgmoth’s Praetor started spiking at the end of December, rising $27 in price over the last three weeks. Previously sporting a market average of about $5.75, Gix is worth about $32.88 according to market averages currently, at least for its cheapest variant. Current sales suggest that this market average is a good indication of its current price.
Muxus, Goblin Grandee
Fans of the seemingly-eternal Goblin Typal MTG strategy have been basking in the sunlight recently. The recent addition of Broadside Bombardiers has granted the strategy some decent Legacy results over the past few weeks. Namesticker Goblin has also proven particularly powerful, essentially functioning as a Ritual stamped onto a Goblin to help power out Muxus, Goblin Grandee.
Not only this, but we know that Krenko, a traditionally powerful Goblin, will be appearing in Murders at Karlov Manor thanks to a piece of artwork revealed during the first look of the set.
Muxus, Goblin Grandee has seen a huge spike on the secondary market this past week. After an initial spike on the secondary market that quieted quickly, Muxus’ overall price has risen.
Muxus is not only the payoff for playing Goblins in the Legacy archetype, but it is certainly the biggest one available. Aside from cheating in a ton of Goblins from the top of your library, Muxus can swing in for game-ending amounts of damage. Muxus is also a fantastic Commander for anyone thinking about trying Goblin Typal in that format. That said, according to EDHREC, Krenko, Mob Boss is a much more popular Commander for the archetype.
Moving back over to Legacy, the results for Legacy Goblins have spiked over the past week. While the deck has not been taking down events, it has made multiple appearances in Legacy preliminaries, challenges, 5-0 league results, and more.
Overall, Muxus’s increase started around Christmas day. Spiking from $5 to $8, current sales suggest that Muxus’s secondary market average may rise further.
If you want to show off your Muxus in style, there’s is a Secret Lair variant that goes for a bit more. The Rainbow Foil treatment of this card has been skyrocketing over the past few weeks. Starting around December 15th, the Rainbow Foil Muxus’s secondary market average spiked from $9 to $19. Further spikes could be expected from current sales prices.
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Urza’s Incubator
Urza’s Incubator has historically been a rather expensive MTG card. Originally printed in Urza’s Destiny, the Incubator is one of the best Typal support cards in all of MTG. Capable of reducing the casting cost of all cards that share a designated creature type by two, Urza’s Incubator can create some incredibly powerful tempo plays, alongside some infinite combos.
Because this card was recently reprinted in Dominaria Remastered, Urza’s Incubator took a big hit to its secondary market price, dropping to as low as $17 from a previous price of $50! That said, Urza’s Incubator is beginning to rebound.
Worth $23 a few months ago, Urza’s Incubator is beginning to demand asking prices over $30 for its base variant. While a majority of the card’s copies are selling for $30-35, some near mint iterations are selling for over $50! The heavy typal focus of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan likely bolstered the price of this Commander card.
Standard Continues to Impress
It appears that the Regional Championship Qualifier’s switch to the Standard format has been hugely successful – at least for increasing the price of Standard cards on the secondary market. Seeing some demand for recently released cards certainly makes recent MTG sets a lot more enticing for players, which should hopefully increase interest in recently released sealed product.
Murders at Karlov Manor is likely to start impacting the secondary market as spoiler season begins, but for now, we’ll need to wait and see if there are any incredibly powerful cards being spoiled, and what archetypes those cards are going to impact.
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