Yesterday will surely go down as one of the most significant days in Magic’s checkered history. Out of nowhere, the Commander Rules Committee banned four cards from the format, three of which were incredibly expensive and popular staples. The resulting fallout has been enormous, with discussion threads attracting thousands of comments, and every major voice in the community weighing in. Naturally, these Commander bans have led to some pretty severe price drops, too.
While it’s difficult to say for sure, it’s likely that these bans represent the single biggest financial blow to Magic collectors we’ve ever seen. Hundreds of dollars in total value have been lost overnight, and many are scrambling to come to terms with that. This chaos is a testament both to the power of the banned cards, and the popularity of Commander as a format.
Mana Crypt
Perhaps the most significant card hit in the bans was Mana Crypt. This card has a very interesting history, originally released as a free promo with one of Magic’s HarperPrism novels back in 1995. It didn’t see a ‘proper’ printing until Eternal Masters in 2016, and by then it was already a certified Commander staple.
Sol Ring is played in pretty much every Commander deck, so a version that costs zero is, naturally, incredibly powerful. The damage drawback is nigh-irrelevant when compared to the huge tempo boost this can give you early. As a result, Mana Crypt has dominated most ‘Best Commander Cards’ lists for years, with most considering it an objectively good addition to pretty much any deck.
Since it’s already banned in Legacy and Oathbreaker and restricted in Vintage, Commander was the only real home for Mana Crypt in the game. Now that that’s gone, its price is in freefall. Nearly every version has been hit. The Double Masters printing is down from $200 to around $50, and the Eternal Masters version has gone from $180 to $50. Even the special printings aren’t safe. The basic Ixalan Special Guest version has dropped from $270 to $115, and the Kaladesh Masterpiece printing has taken a dive from $950 to around $500.
These are truly incredible price drops, on a scale we haven’t really seen before. The drop is likely to continue, too, unless the bans are reverted in the next few days. Vintage is such a niche format that it won’t keep the price of Crypts high by itself. Rare printings will retain some innate collector value, but this could genuinely be a bulk mythic by the end of the week, which is a terrifying thought.
Jeweled Lotus
While nowhere near as iconic as Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus actually has more to lose in the price drops prompted by the Commander bans. While Crypt is at least technically playable in another format, Lotus really only functions in Commander. It does play a role in a niche Legacy combo deck, but it was used much more often in multiplayer Magic.
Like Command Tower and War Room, this was a card printed with Commander in mind, in a Commander-focused set. Without legality in its target format, Lotus is little more than a fancy bookmark. The price on both of its basic printings has dropped from around $100 to around $50. The special versions are being hit even harder. The textured foil from Commander Masters has slipped from around $500 to around $300 and is still going.
Frankly, I’m surprised Lotus is still retaining the value that it is. Nobody is going to be paying $50 for this card while it’s banned in Commander. Additionally, buying in now hoping for a reversion is a risky move. While Crypt may retain some value for nostalgia reasons, I don’t see Lotus doing the same. I’d expect a further crash to around $10 soon. Possibly even lower if we get some reinforcement on these bans from WotC.
Dockside Extortionist
Dockside Extortionist has also experienced severe price drops across all versions as a result of these Commander bans. This card is probably the poster child for ‘broken in Commander’ design. It looks innocuous enough, but with multiple opponents, it becomes a terrifying ritual effect. One you can loop via reanimation/flicker effects, no less. Dockside was a must in cEDH, and a card that could single-handedly raise the power level of your casual deck by a few points.
Dockside isn’t nearly as potent in 1v1 Magic, however. Thus it’s completely unrepresented in any non-Commander formats. While it isn’t as innately bound to Commander as Lotus, for price purposes, it might as well be. No one is playing this anywhere else, so now no one is playing Dockside at all.
As a result, what was once an $85-90 card is now going for $30-40. As with the two cards above, I expect these losses to continue, too. There’s simply nothing propping up this price anymore. When it comes to the topic of possible ban reversions, which many are already discussing, I think Dockside has the least chance of receiving one. Crypt and Lotus are both more iconic and less abusable than this card. I don’t see Dockside, or its price, making a comeback any time soon.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom
For the sake of completeness, I wanted to include Nadu, Winged Wisdom here too. That said, it really hasn’t experienced the same kind of drama as its banmates. Nadu has been a bizarre financial edge case since its release. While it was clearly one of the best cards in MH3, players were so convinced it’d get banned that the price stayed low. Then it did get banned in Modern, and nothing really changed. Now that it’s out of Commander too, however, we are seeing a drop.
Nadu has gone from around $3.20 to around $1.80 since the ban announcement yesterday. A similar percentage drop to the other cards, just on a much less expensive card. Nadu actually does see a good amount of play in Legacy, so it has a home to go to post-ban. Players are unlikely to invest a lot in a card with this kind of reputation, however, so I expect the price to stay low from here on out.
Catastrophic Losses
Looked at in isolation, these price drops are huge. When you consider the bigger picture, however, they become a landmark event in MTG history. Not only were the three big cards hit by the bans very expensive, but they were also very popular, too. Going by EDHRec data, over 500,000 decks contain Mana Crypt. Jeweled Lotus has found its way into nearly 340,000 lists, while Dockside sits pretty in nearly 348,000.
These numbers likely don’t correlate exactly to physical copies owned, since there’s no verification process for decks aggregated by EDHRec. They’re a good guideline, however, and give us an idea of just how many players had invested in these powerful staples. On the high end, these numbers tally up to total losses of nearly $100 million. Even with more conservative calculations, we’re still looking at tens of millions being ripped from the wallets of Magic players overnight.
These losses are so shocking that many players are holding out hope for a reversion of the bans in the days to come. This is extremely unlikely, as there’s no past precedent for something like that taking place. It would also exacerbate the financial issues, and send players scrambling to pick up the banned cards again. The chances of this happening are vanishingly small. The fact that these cards are still holding some value implies that some are still holding out hope, however.
Read More: Duskmourn Commander Causes Micro Set MTG Card to Spike 400%
