As much as things have been getting better recently, it’s hard to call the switch to limited-run Secret Lair drops a success. Ever since the change was implemented back in 2024, we’ve seen countless drops selling out almost instantly. Unsurprisingly, this has caused many of these ultra scarce cards to go for serious premiums.
Thankfully, while it’s not much of a silver lining, the vast majority of Secret Lair cards are just reprints. Even the mechanically unique Secret Lair cards that we do get don’t tend to be that strong, in the grand scheme of Magic. When there’s a card that bucks this trend, however, it doesn’t take long before things get out of hand.
Unfortunately, while it was never that affordable to begin with, that appears to be exactly what’s happening now. Even without any fancy new support, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima has been steadily climbing in price over the past few months. Now, this MTG card is selling for at least $120, and it might not even stop there…
MTG Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima
Originally released as part of the PlayStation Superdrop last October, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima quickly carved out its niche in MTG. Considering the strength of this card as a Commander, it’s absolutely no surprise this has happened. It might look slightly simple on the surface, but Jin Sakai unlocks many of the best attack abilities in MTG.
Essentially, so long as each creature is attacking an opponent alone, Jin Sakai ensures it’s either unblockable or seriously punishing. Unsurprisingly, this is especially deadly when paired with cards like Unstoppable Slasher or cards with Sneak or Ninjutsu. You can even build a remarkably deadly Voltron shell using Jin Sakai, as Double Strike can come in clutch.
Thanks to these impressive abilities, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima is already incredibly popular in Commander, helming over 12,000 decks. While they’re much less popular in the 99, featuring in only around 2,100 lists, Jin Sakai is hardly an unknown. Despite this, it seems like demand for this Commander is only growing, especially as new cards get released.
Since “whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player” is often used as a balancing mechanism, Jin Sakai often unlocks the true potential of new cards. Not only does this make him exciting to build around, but it gives this Commander fantastic long-term potential, too. With this in mind, it’s little wonder it has been steadily getting more expensive recently.
The Spike
As mentioned, since its release, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima has always been a fairly expensive MTG card. Winding the clocks back a few months, for instance, and Jin Sakai would routinely sell for $69 on average. While this is already more than the entire Ghost of Tsushima Secret Lair drop sold for, this past price is a blissful memory.
In the past three months, 300 copies of Jin Sakai have been sold, which is notable when nothing really happened. Sales have peaked in a few places, but for the most part, demand is just shockingly consistent. Due to this, it’s little wonder that prices have increased so much recently, but even the current market price is a little way off.
Right now, if you want to pick up a near-mint non-foil copy of Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima, it’ll cost you $119.95. As if this isn’t enough for you, foil copies have been selling for $130, but those have all sold out. Sadly, while both of these prices are already incredibly high, they may get worse before they get any better.
The Future
So long as Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t get reprinted, this MTG card has a very bright future. After all, without any more supply hitting the market, it should only get more and more expensive. While there will be a ceiling where the price becomes too much for many players to pay, we’re evidently not there yet.
Sadly, since there’s not much supply to go around thanks to Jin Sakai’s origins, the sky is the limit. That being said, Wizards of the Coast should reprint this MTG card. Not only is it more than expensive enough to warrant reprinting, but it’s a mechanically unique Secret Lair card. Previously, it was literally policy to reprint these cards to help increase supply.
Unfortunately, Wizards has since moved to a new policy, where slightly more supply is given to local game stores instead. While this is better than nothing, clearly it’s not an appropriate solution when we’ve got cards like this. To make matters worse, the restriction of reprint sources makes getting reprints for cards like Jin Sakai more difficult in the first place.
Ultimately, as always, we can’t predict the future of the MTG market, nor Wizards’ reprint policy. Due to this, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens over the coming months. Hopefully, a solution will arrive sooner rather than later; however, I’m not hugely optimistic about that happening.
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