As Dominaria United’s spoiler season starts to come to a close, we finally begin to see spoilers impact MTG’s secondary market in more significant ways. There are seemingly two overarching themes between the most crucial price hikes this week- those being spoilers and a creature type seeing a resurgence. This week’s strangest trend is the massive price increase for anything and everything related to MTG Griffin creatures.
MTG Griffin Support is Back!
One of the cards spoiled in the Dominaria United Commander set gives incredible support to the Griffin tribal archetype. Zeriam, Golden Wind is a four-mana 3/4 flier that creates a 2/2 Griffin whenever a Griffin you control deals combat damage to a player. This effect can scale on itself, getting triggered by the Griffins that the effect creates. This is, therefore, a quick way to dominate an unsuspecting board state.
Most Market watch’s covering this price increase relate all MTG Griffin-related price spikes to this card but also call on some speculation based on this card that more Griffins will be spoiled for the upcoming set. It doesn’t look like we’ve received any other Griffin support so far, but here are some of the cards that saw a massive increase in response to Zeriam, Golden Wind.
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Zuberi, Golden Feather
Zuberi, Golden Feather is a five-mana 3/3 that has flying and is a vanilla Lord for Griffins. This means that it gives all other Griffins +1/+1 but has no other abilities. This somewhat underwhelming card is now going for about $9 in peak condition, but it is easy to find a played one for a discount. Before the spoiling of Zeriam, Zuberi went for about $5 in peak condition. While Zuberi isn’t anything to write home about, even in a Griffin deck, it only has one printing in an older MTG set. This alone makes a small amount of demand shoot Zuberi’s price to the moon.
Griffin Canyon
Griffin Canyon is the second card that saw substantial price increases and had multiple market watch’s covering the movement. This card rose from about $9.50 to an average of $18 over one to two weeks. Averages for near-mint copies are now around $20, while some stores sell these for as much as $50! I don’t think the $50 price tag is worth it, but some stores may try to convince you that the card is worth that much.
Griffin Canyon can lead to some sneaky combos with its untap ability. Generally, it would help if you had something that assigns the Griffin creature type to do this, like Maskwood Nexus, but Griffin Canyon can lead to a situation where you have a creature with infinite power and toughness. Sylvan Awakening and a Maskwood Nexus-like card are one of the more popular combos, allowing for an infinitely powerful Griffin Canyon as a creature.
Read More: MTG Staples are Breaking the Bank! Another $100 Card Emerges?
Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
As the Heroes and Legends MTG market watch pointed out, Adrix and Nev see a significant spike in price due to Dominaria United spoilers. A lot of cards are coming out that synergize with tokens in this set, most notably Vesuvan Duplimancy, that Adrix and Nev can go nuts with. The video showcases many different cards that make tokens in the set. Still, Adrix and Nev are fantastic in a set with Commander Box-Toppers, where a majority of them care about creating tokens.
For the record, Adrix and Nev, Twincasters are a sort of Doubling Season, allowing you to double the number of tokens you would create when those tokens are under your control. Vesuvan Duplimancy is an effect capable of copying Adrix and Nev itself since it ignores the Legend Rule(which may not be around for much longer), which will result in a scenario where each Adrix and Nev will stack, quickly creating an absurd amount of tokens. It’s easy to see from this spoiler alone why Adrix and Nev is seeing a price increase.
Before Dominaria United Spoiler season, Adrix and Nev were worth about $5. Adrix and Nev are starting to push $20 in sales, with the average being around $18. This card is still mid-spike, so for those who got the Strixhaven Quandrix Commander deck that you find Adrix and Nev in, I recommend you hold onto it a little bit longer.
Will These Prices Hold?
Honestly, the Griffin price increase seems a little misplaced. Besides Zeriam, Golden Wind, it doesn’t look like Dominaria United will be getting any additional Griffin support. Zeriam is a potent card and could set a string of events where players want to see more Griffins and Wizards of the Coast listen. Adrix and Nev will likely continue to increase as time passes. Look at Edgar Markhov, an incredibly powerful Vampire Commander worth tons of money. The cards from Commander Precons that break out on the scene can skyrocket in price when the deck goes out of print. Adrix and Nev will be a card to watch for the next few months.
A Planeswalker also saw a considerable price increase recently. We wrote about that here.
