Two preconstructed Commander decks were released alongside Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Both decks came with exclusive, new-to-the-game cards. One of these cards from the Buckle Up deck, Kappa Cannoneer, is getting a lot of attention from Magic: the Gathering players. As such, Kappa Cannonneer shot up in price after release. But the reasoning behind its price increase may not be why you think.
Kappa Cannoneer
When it first came out, Kappa Cannoneer was about $4.00. But these days the card is about $15.00. Looking at how good the card is partly explains this price increase.
Kappa Cannoneer is most comparable to
Murktide Regent
Murktide Regent
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Flying
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each instant and sorcery card exiled with it.
Whenever an instant or sorcery card leaves your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
in that you can cast it for a hefty discount, comes down with sizable stats, and can grow larger. Whereas Murktide needs a high density of instants and sorceries in your deck, Kappa Cannoneer cares about artifacts. And although Cannoneer lacks Flying like Murktide, it does have pseudo-hexproof in the form of Ward 4, and can still make itself unblockable.
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What Caused Kappa Cannoneer’s Price to Rise?
Although Kappa Cannoneer was designed for Commander, it actually rose in price because of Legacy.
Multiple artifact-centric Legacy decks are adopting Kappa Cannoneer into their strategies. Let’s take a look at a few.
8 – Cast
This deck gets its name from the 4 copies of
Thoughtcast
Thoughtcast
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Draw two cards.
+ 4 copies of
Thought Monitor
Thought Monitor
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Flying
When this creature enters, draw two cards.
. It plays a high density of artifacts to discount these draw spells. This makes Kappa Cannoneer an easy inclusion.
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Affinity
Kappa Cannoneer also makes for a great threat in more aggressive artifact strategies like Affinity.
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Bomberman
Here’s a Kappa Cannoneer infinite combo. Bomberman Legacy decks use the combo between
Auriok Salvagers
Auriok Salvagers
{1}{W}: Return target artifact card with mana value 1 or less from your graveyard to your hand.
and
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Discard your hand, Sacrifice this artifact: Add three mana of any one color. Activate only as an instant.
to make infinite mana. That mana can be used to make an infinitely large
Walking Ballista
Walking Ballista
This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
{4}: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: It deals 1 damage to any target.
. But this works just as well with Kappa Cannoneer, as it will have infinite power and toughness and can’t be blocked.
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