Recent trends have sent a variety of Final Fantasy Summons skyrocketing in price. Sure, they’re good fits for trendy Commanders at the moment, like Terra, Magical Adept and Tom Bombadil, but a lot of these Summons are just solid cards. Summon: Yojimbo recently saw a price increase for this reason, and Summon: Ixion seems to be spiking for similar ones.
Summon: Ixion
For three mana, Summon: Ixion does a lot. In addition to being a strong blocker thanks to First Strike, Ixion buffs your board, gains life, and offers a temporary Banishing Light for opposing creatures. Of course, abilities that manipulate Lore Counters can amplify Ixion’s effectiveness, allowing it to exile multiple creatures in some scenarios. Ultimately, keeping Ixion around for longer means that the creature(s) it exiles remain removed for longer. In weird spots, you can even use Ixion as protection for a creature if you’re planning on wiping the board.
Summon: Ixion works best in Summon-focused strategies, but the card is appealing for a few common archetypes. Lifegain decks, go-wide decks, as well as +1/+1 counter decks, can get enough value from Summon: Axion to make it worthwhile. In many of those decks, the card essentially functions as a synergy piece that also gives temporary removal and a relevant board presence.
According to EDHREC, while the card is seeing overwhelming amounts of play in any enchantment or saga-matters decks, Summon: Ixion is also seeing play in counter manipulation decks, like Tayam, Luminous Enigma and Falco Spara, Pactweaver, in Unicorn Typal, and to a lesser extent lifegain.
As a result of sudden increased demand, Summon: Ixion is now beginning to spike in price after falling from ridiculous prerelease highs.
The Spike
After falling from a lofty preorder high, Summon: Ixion is now beginning to climb after a massive sales surge yesterday. Overall, the card has spiked from about $0.98 to $4.06, but a majority of that spike occurred over just a few days. At the time of writing, the traditional variant you find in Counter Blitz Commander decks only has eight copies left, suggesting that demand is currently outweighing supply.
Fortunately, the other variants of Summon: Ixion are a lot more accessible, which is rather atypical. The Surge Foil variant, bizarrely, is rather comparable to the current price of the Traditional Foil variant. A majority of these are around $5.50, but you can find them for cheaper. Even at that price, considering how much rarer the Surge Foil variant is, this seems like a great deal. Considering that this spike is so recent, there’s a good chance that these won’t be available at this price point for too much longer.
The borderless variant, not available in Commander precon 99s or in Play Boosters, is the most expensive variant, going for about $6.50 in its nonfoil variant, and $10+ for its foil variants. This variant has notably also seen a much smaller spike, but at the moment, it appears to be trying to find its price point instead of seeing a massive price surge.
Still a Bit Too Narrow
Unlike, Summon: Yojimbo that can see play in almost any casual White Commander deck, the value that Summon: Ixion provides is still a bit narrow. As a result, Summon: Ixion may not keep its price in the long run. As players move away from the current focus of Saga decks, Summon: Ixion won’t fit quite as well in new Commander decks, creating future trends.
All of that said, since this spike is so fresh, there’s a decent chance that Summon: Ixion will get more expensive in the short term. How long that lasts, however, is anyone’s guess. If it does spike, however, chances are that it will be temporary.
At the time of writing, Counter Blitz itself is also steadily declining in price, with signs of the deck finally finding a consistent-ish price point at around $90. This is about the average for the Final Fantasy Commander precons at the moment, with Limit Break being worth a small premium, and Revival Trance being significantly cheaper than the other precons. If Counter Blitz continues to drop in price, Summon: Ixion might follow.
While we can’t say anything for certain, Summon: Ixion’s sudden popularity seems to be due to the popularity of Saga decks, but Yojimbo’s sudden price spike may have also had an impact. Whether you’re playing Enchantments, lifegain, counters, or go-wide decks, you might be surprised by what this Unicorn is capable of.