Between Bloomburrow, Duskmourn, and MTG Foundations, the last few months have been stellar for MTG. The game has been going from strength to strength, especially with all the exciting announcements about what’s happening next year. In contrast, the start of 2024 was comparatively rather dire, as sets like Murders at Karlov Manor flopped hard.
Decreed to be the least successful set from this year, Murders at Karlov Manor was tonally, and mechanically, rather weak. Outside of Vein Ripper causing havoc and the Surveil Lands seeing play, the set is decidedly rather meh. That detail doesn’t mean many cards don’t have potential, however.
Should the right archetype and needs arise, there’s nothing stopping Karlov Manor cards from spiking in popularity. Over the past week, that’s exactly what we’ve seen to Case of the Crimson Pulse. While the card isn’t a competitive darling just yet, there’s real potential here that could go the distance.
Case of the Crimson Pulse
- Mana Value: 2R
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment — Case
- Card Text: When this Case enters, discard a card, then draw two cards.
To solve — You have no cards in hand. (If unsolved, solve at the beginning of your end step.)
Solved — At the beginning of your upkeep, discard your hand, then draw two cards.
On the surface, Case of the Crimson Pulse looks like it should be a lot more popular than it is. Even if three mana to draw two cards is a worse Thrill of Possibility it just gets better from there. If you can empty your hand completely, Case of the Crimson Pulse becomes a constant and insane draw engine.
Obviously, the catch here is that you need to solve the case first, which is technically easier said than done. For an aggressive mono-red deck, however, this is no problem at all. The majority of these decks, in Standard at least, top out at three mana for Screaming Nemesis. Thanks to this, emptying your hand by turn four of five is genuinely viable.
Once you achieve this feat, Case of the Crimson Pulse will turn on and you can run away with the rest of the game. Unless it gets removed, you’ll start each turn with three cards, which is devastating for your opponent. In a format with Burst Lightning, Lightning Strike, and Boltwave, these draws threaten a lot of damage.
Thanks to this appeal, and the rise of mono-red decks, some MTG players have unsurprisingly been testing Case of the Crimson Pulse. So far, the card has mostly just been stuck in the sideboard of League winning lists, but there’s nonetheless potential. As the Standard meta continues to be solved, there’s a real chance Case of the Crimson Pulse will see play.
The Spike
Unsurprisingly, the potential strength of Case of the Crimson Pulse has been enough to interest the MTG finance community. Even if the card isn’t a Standard staple just yet, there’s a good deal of potential that could be realized soon. As such, some enterprising MTG players have been investing in Case of the Crimson Pulse in hopes of greatness.
Specifically, on November 25th, there was a huge spike in sales of Case of the Crimson Pulse. Previously, it was rare for more than two dozen copies of this card to sell each day. On the 25th, however, 140 copies of this card were sold, making a heavy dent in the available supply. Unsurprisingly, this caught the interest of the MTG finance community.
As players like SadCritters on Reddit suggest, it seems a large number of recent sales have been needlessly expensive. Rather than paying the minimum price of $0.20 (not including shipping), buyers were spending upwards of $1.80 apiece. Thanks to how averages work, this pushed up the market price of Case of the Crimson Pulse significantly.
While the spike to Case of the Crimson Pulse does seem somewhat reasonable, it’s worth noting this could be market manipulation. It’s not unheard of for sellers to buy and sell cards for more than usual to artificially inflate the price. Given the volume of >$1 sales, it’s possible that’s what we’ve seen today.
The result of this is that Case of the Crimson Pulse is now, almost, a $1 MTG card. This might not seem like much, but earlier in November it was selling for 19 cents a pop. To date, the price has risen by over 415% and it may not stop there. Should Case of the Crimson Pulse turn out to be the real deal, this price could really soar.
A Suspect Spec?
At the end of the day, it remains to be seen which way the price of Case of the Crimson Pulse will go. While there’s demand for the card now, this is almost entirely from a financial perspective. As such, if the card fails to become truly competitive, investors may be left without buyers before long.
Right now, all hopes on Case of the Crimson Pulse are pinned on Standard, as it doesn’t see play elsewhere. Commander and Modern, for instance, have no real interest in this card as it’s too slow and ineffective. There could be some love for it in Pioneer potentially, but this would come as an evolution of Standard play.
Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens to Case of the Crimson Pulse going forward. If it becomes a staple in mono-red burn decks then it may well be with the hype right now. Should existing lists continue to remain dominant, however, this spike may just be a blip in this Case’s history.
