Fortunately, it appears that the cards Wizards of the Coast unbanned in various formats a few weeks ago is having a positive impact. Decks that were falling out of contention appear to have renewed vitality, unlocking unplayable strategies in player’s collections. Since the idea of eternal formats is to find a home for as many cards as possible, unbanning cards to make more cards viable in the metagame is the best timeline for many MTG formats.
As a result of these unbannings, some cards that were previously unplayable in affected formats are starting to rear their heads, which is an entirely expected progression to a successful shakeup. What isn’t expected, however, is that an entirely separate video game to a different IP seems to be impacting the MTG secondary market.
Its rather rare that something almost completely unrelated to Magic has a financial impact on the market, but that appears to be what’s happening to one Dungeons and Dragons crossover card after Baldur’s Gate 3 had an absolutely incredible debut. Now, one of the favored Companions from the game is seeing a spike in interest in the MTG world as well.
Karlach, Fury of Avernus
Why the heck is Karlach seeing a spike? The card is an ok option in Commander, and that’s where the card is seeing more play recently. The reason why this card is spiking, however, may not have anything to do with Magic at all.
Baldur’s Gate 3 released not too long ago, and the game has been putting up some exceptional numbers, far more than many expected. It didn’t take long for the game to have more than half a million users!
Notably, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Dungeons and Dragons game. Owned by Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons and Dragons has two massive crossover sets in the Magic universe too. One of them even shares the name of the hit game.
As a result, most, if not all, of the heavily impactful characters in Baldur’s Gate also have MTG counterparts. Karlach, Fury of Avernus is one of the Companion characters that you can romance and otherwise have participate as a partner on your adventures. Thanks to Karlach’s hit appearance in Baldur’s Gate 3, many, potentially new, players are interested in building Karlach in Commander.
Prices for Karlach are all over the place right now. You can find copies of her normal card for between $5 and $18. For reference, her market price according to TCGplayer spiked from $4.68 to $8, and a majority of her cheaper copies are selling for at least $6.
Looking around at other Companions from Baldur’s Gate 3 do show slight price spikes, but not as notable as Karlach. One of them, however, Wilds of Eldraine List Update Adds Huge $40 Reprints!Wilds of Eldraine List Update Adds Huge $40 Reprints!
If you’re curious as to where the other companions from Baldur’s Gate 3 appear in the MTG world, we covered that in another article.
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Dreadhorde Arcanist is banned in Legacy. The ability to Flashback Brainstorm with its attack trigger created far too much card selection and card advantage for the rest of the format to keep up with.
That said, the Arcanist is only banned in Legacy. There are powerful cards for the Zombie Wizard to Flashback in other formats, but none of them compare to the raw power provided Brainstorm… until the unbans occured.
Its still no Brainstorm, but recasting Preordain has proven strong enough for Dreadhorde Arcanist to keep up with the Modern format. Before Preordain was unbanned, Izzet Murktide, previously the most popular deck in the format, was losing steam thanks to the printings of The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters. The powerful cantrip has since allowed it to re-establish itself at some point, partly, it appears, thanks to Dreadhorde Arcanist.
As a result, Dreadhorde Arcanist has seen a smaller financial spike across a majority of its variants, but the Time Spiral Remastered reprint is the one making financial headlines, spiking from $1 to now selling for anywhere between $4 and $10.
Honestly, considering that Murktide is still not putting up the best results in Modern, this spike is likely to be short-lived. Unless you need them now, just wait a bit. They’ll probably come back down.
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Force of Negation
Any MTG players who engage in Legacy, Modern or even Commander play have come across this card. Force of Negation definitely resembles Force of Will with a few key differences: its legal in Modern, it can only counter noncreature spells, and it exiles the spell it counters, which is relevant. The biggest difference between Force of Negation and Force of Will, however, is that you can only use the free alternate cost of pitching another blue spell (you don’t lose one life with Force of Negation) on your opponent’s turn.
Force of Negation has always been incredibly popular in the Modern format, but it recently saw an increase in play thanks to The One Ring and Lorien Revealed. The One Ring made it much easier to pull ahead in terms of card advantage, making the cost of exiling an additional blue spell from your hand smaller. Otherwise, Lorien Revealed, while primarily functioning as a land, can be pitched for Force of Negation. This card would generally be a land otherwise, which cannot be pitched.
Since hitting a nadir of about $27 in mid-July, Force of Negation’s cheapest variant is currently selling for between $32 and $45. Prices do seem to be increasing as we speak, but most Force of Negation cards are selling for $35 at minimum.
And They Shall Know No Fear
And They Shall Know No Fear tends to pop up on these financial spike lists whenever Typal strategies start to gain popularity. It makes sense considering that Rats and Faeries are getting a huge buff from Wilds of Eldraine, and the recent Commander Masters EDH precons have shined a spotlight on Slivers.
Awkwardly, Rats and Faeries don’t typically play in white, but Slivers, and potentially other new spoilers from Wilds of Eldraine, may be the cause of this sudden spike. And They Shall Know No Fear has increased from just below $6 at the beginning of August and is now selling for about $15.
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