Now that we’re officially in 2025, it seems fitting that Standard is causing price spikes. Between all the Regional Championship Qualifier seasons and the six major sets, Standard is undoubtedly this year’s focus. As a result, it’s little wonder that many MTG players have been following the format, and stocking up on staples.
Unsurprisingly, all this interest in Standard has caused a great many price spikes over recent weeks and months. Evidently, we haven’t seen the last of these, even while the Standard format is somewhat stale. Curiously, this latest Standard-based price spike isn’t thanks to the new Esper Pixie deck putting up compelling results.
Instead of something new, the meta-leading Dimir Midrange deck is thanks to this latest price spike. Thanks to easily being the most popular option in Standard, it simply seems there’s no shortage of demand. As always, this has caused prices to spike, even for unassuming cards like Floodpits Drowner.
Floodpits Drowner
- Mana Value: 1U
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 2/1
- Creature Type: Creature – Merfolk
- Card Text: Flash
Vigilance
When Floodpits Drowner enters, tap target creature an opponent controls and put a stun counter on it.
1U, Tap: Shuffle Floodpits Drowner and target creature with a stun counter on it into their owner’s libraries.
On the surface, Floodpits Drowner hardly looks like the most exciting MTG card in existence. A 2/1 with Flash, Vigilance, and a stunning effect is on rate, sure, but it’s no Abhorrent Occulus. That being said, Floodpits Drowner is nonetheless an incredibly versatile tool in Dimir decks of all flavors.
At worst, Floodpits Drowner allows you to tap down an opponent’s scariest threat to protect yourself or stop potential blocks. Should you time this right, at the end of your opponent’s turn, Floodpits Drowner even adds to your board. While not groundbreaking, this makes this card a fairly reliable midrange-y tempo card at any stage of the game.
While Floodpits Drowner can put in work on their own, they’ve become a mainstay in Standard thanks to synergy. Specifically, Floodpits Drowner synergizes perfectly with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and their Ninjutsu ability. When played on curve at the end of your opponent’s turn, Floodpits Drowner becomes a one-manfish Kaito enabler.
Thanks to this use case, Floodpits Drowner is seeing a great deal of play in both Standard and Pioneer. Appearing in Dimir Midrange and Dimir Ninjas lists, both these archetypes make fantastic use of Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. Having a card that facilitates Kaito, and importantly isn’t useless if drawn later, is, therefore, a no-brainer.
If you’re still not convinced about the power of Floodpits Drowner, it’s also worth mentioning they see play in Modern and Legacy. Admittedly, the card is confined to Merfolk-themed lists in these formats, but it’s still no joke. Ultimately, it’s little wonder that this card’s price has been on the up and up throughout the past month.
The Spike
Last year, around the start of December specifically, a near-mint copy of Floodpits Drowner could be yours for around $0.31. As an uncommon from a dubiously liked, yet nonetheless enjoyable set from 2024, this is nothing special. The card was being played in Standard but it wasn’t anything particularly special or revolutionary.
This detail hasn’t really changed, as the Kaito synergy has been around since Duskmourn. Instead of any surge in interest causing this price spike, we’ve simply seen continued demand steadily draining supply. As the sales graph above demonstrates, people have been consistently buying Floodpits Drowner, with typically 30-50 copies sold daily.
Over time, the decreasing supply has steadily increased prices as sellers capitalize on the growing opportunity. What once was a $0.31 card is now selling for over $2.50, according to TCGplayer’s Market Price figure. Notably, copies of Floodpits Drowner are available for around $2; however, these prices are rather rare.
Considering the existence of cheaper copies, it’s likely that TCGplayer Direct has played some role in this steady price spike. Offering greater convenience, albeit at higher prices, it’s common to see this program’s influence on otherwise unassuming staples. To propel the price spike even further, Floodpits Drowner is also weirdly rare.
Unlike most MTG cards nowadays, Floodpits Drowner has no fancy borderless or alternative art variants. Instead, you can only find this card as either foil or non-foil, nothing else. This might not seem so bad, but it means there’s less chance of it appearing in packs and Collector Boosters specifically.
Due to this unusual rarity, Floodpits Drowner may be more susceptible to price spikes than most Duskmourn cards. This may well mean that its price spike is far from over.
The Spike 2: Electric Boogaloo
If we’re to hazard a guess, it seems highly likely that the price of Floodpits Drowner will soon climb even higher. As supply continues to drain, more and more players will rush to pick up copies while they still can. This, in turn, will place even more strain on the market, causing prices to spike even harder and faster.
Once this happens, however, we might suddenly see that a lot more Floodpits Drowners are in circulation as investors react. Anyone who bought in at the start of December, or even earlier, will soon be able to make a very tidy profit indeed. Provided these copies aren’t unceremoniously dumped on the market, prices are likely to stay high for quite some time.
That being said, Floodpits Drowner only really exists in one archetype, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll last forever. Standard may be somewhat stale right now, but that should be changing throughout 2025. Since there are six major Standard-legal sets being released, it’d be utterly remarkable if nothing changes.
With this in mind, it may only be a matter of time before Floodpits Drowner becomes draft chaff once again. Whether or not this will actually happen, however, currently remains to be seen. We’ll just have to wait to see what 2025 brings, starting with Aetherdrift.
