the chain veil
7, Feb, 23

Controversial Strategy Causes Multiple EDH Staples' Climb to $70!

Phyrexia: All Will Be One looks like an incredible set for Commander players. As pointed out by our Commander top 10 list for the set, multiple cards in this set could easily be the best Commander cards in other sets. All Will Be One, the new Nissa, and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, are all fantastic cards in Commander that could easily cause the table to target you in a mass panic. However, in terms of EDH archetypes, it’s pretty difficult to argue that the MTG Superfriends one wasn’t among the biggest winners.

ichormoon gauntlet

Alongside these potential Commander staples comes a three-mana artifact that supports one of the more hated archetypes in the Commander format. Ichormoon Gauntlet is, by far, the most powerful support card that MTG Superfriends or Planeswalker tribal players have received in quite some time. This, alongside some Poison counter synergies, is causing a massive spike in win conditions for the deck. Let’s take a look!

Doubling Season

doubling season

Doubling Season has long been known as an infamous win condition for the MTG Superfriends archetype. While the card cannot double the number of counters Planeswalkers obtain with activated abilities, it does double the number of Loyalty Planeswalkers enter the battlefield with. This allows for Planeswalkers to ultimate immediately, quickly leading to a series of, not necessarily infinite, combos, but situations where you win on the spot. Notably, Doubling Season also doubles the number of counters obtained by the Proliferate abilities from Ichormoon Gauntlet.

Doubling Season has been expensive for quite a long time but has also been gaining value over time. There are a fair number of printings for this card, and what we’ve seen as a result of the counter support printing in MTG’s newest set is all of these Doubling Season copies finding a similar price point (outside of two premium printings). This results in all of the Doubling Season copies rising in various amounts to hit about the $90 mark in Near Mint condition. This is about $10 higher than the average amongst most Doubling Season copies that we saw during November.

As mentioned about Proliferate’s interaction with Doubling Season, this card also pairs well with cards that care about Poison Counters. Proliferating a single Poison Counter with Doubling Season on board immediately allows for Corrupted triggers to become live on that player.

Read More: Cards that Stop Despised MTG Mechanic Quadruple in Price!

The Chain Veil

the chain veil

Unlike Doubling Season, The Chain Veil has some interest outside of Commander. This card also sees play in Mono Green Nykthos sideboard, a powerful deck that some Pioneer players believe the decks need to be banned. Outside of that, however, The Chain Veil is also one of the strongest support cards for the MTG Superfriends archetype. Aside from fueling a ton of infinite combos (with enough mana, of course), The Chain Veil also allows for extra Planeswalker activations, which is insane when most of your threats are Planeswalkers. As many Pioneer players know, The Chain Veil grants additional activated abilities to Planeswalkers that aren’t in play, which can lead to absolutely devastating turns.

The Chain Veil’s rise is much more gradual than Doubling Season’s outside of an outlier spike around August of last year. A year ago, this card was worth about $10. August saw The Chain Veil spike to about $26 on average, likely due to the innovation to Mono Green Devotion decks. The price of The Chain Veil stabilized around $23 but has crawled back up to $25 as a result of Phyrexia’s spoiling… on average.

Like most cards seeing fresh spikes like this one, there is a lot of instability around NM versions of this card’s price. While you can still find some NM copies of this card selling for $23, there are also versions of the card selling for as much as $32. Ultimately, this card seems to be averaging around $25, but some lowered interest over the last few days suggests that the card may decrease in price.

Read More: Bizarre Universes Beyond Buyout Causes 1400% Price Spikes

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

vorinclex, monstrous raider

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider has a similar effect to Doubling Season in terms of the Superfriends decks. Vorinclex is even a bit better since it also doubles counters added to Planeswalkers with their Loyalty activations. Lucky players can find copies of this Praetor in Phyrexia: All Will Be One product, but this card is easier to find in the Kaldheim packs where it originates from. Like Doubling Season, Vorinclex is also very effective in Toxic decks, making it a powerful upgrade to the Corrupting Influence EDH decks.

Regarding financial patterns, Vorinclex saw a massive increase in price near the end of December. Before the spike that occurred around Christmas, Vorinclex was worth around $36. Once this card started seeing an increase in interest due to Phyrexia: All Will Be One spoilers, it began to skyrocket. The card, according to TCGplayer, is worth about $56 on average, with cards selling for between $45 and $70 generally (there are a few $90 outliers).

Considering that Vorinclex saw a reprint in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, there is a chance that the card could see a slight price drop. That said, the offset Praetors seem exceedingly difficult to open at this point, so the impact could be weaker than we think.

Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice

atraxa, praetors' voice

We already discussed this particular card’s rise to fame recently, so we won’t go too in-depth here. That said, Atraxa is still the hottest topic in the MTG secondary market and is considered one of the most common Commanders used in MTG Superfriends decks. It is also, according to EDHREC, the most popular Commander of the past few years. This is all due to Atraxa’s Proliferate ability, which can speed up a Planeswalker’s clock by getting them closer to their devastating Ultimate ability. This, obviously, also synergizes well with a set that cares about the Proliferate mechanic.

The last time we looked at Atraxa, the card was breaching the $50 mark. Well, the card has… gained a lot of value in a short period of time. Atraxa is now approaching the $75 mark, selling for between $65 and $90 rather consistently. Honestly, this price increase is somewhat alarming, as EDH’s most popular Commander is now behind a massive price wall. Atraxa synergizes absurdly well with the majority of the Phyrexia: All Will Be One set, so seeing a price increase is something that many should expect, but seeing one this massive could affect the creature’s popularity at your Commander tables. That said, a price spike this massive will likely lead to some stabilization. The question is when that stabilization will occur, and how expensive will Atraxa end up?

Read More: $100 MTG EDH ‘Chase’ Cosmetic Collectible Causes Chaos!

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