mind over matter
15, Mar, 23

Lord of the Rings Cards Cause Old MTG Card to Shoot Past $50!

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Article at a Glance

Its only a few days after the first reveal of the new Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth first look, and the cards revealed have already hit the secondary market hard. Players have been quick to identify some absurd interactions with cards of old that have caused them to skyrocket. If you have these cards, they may get a lot more expensive!

Mind Over Matter

mind over matter

We mentioned this briefly when we first looked at The One Ring, but these two cards combined with a win condition like Thassa’s Oracle win the game on their own.

The One Ring features a unique ability that draws you cards equal to the number of Burden counters on it when tapped. There is a downside to the Burden counters, but it occurs at your upkeep. This means that, if you can untap The One Ring, there is no downside to activating the card repetitively throughout one turn. This allows you to use Mind Over Matter to discard a card and untap The One Ring, drawing one more card than the Ring’s previous activation. This easily, draws your entire deck. Past that point, discard some cards to untap your lands and cast Thassa’s Oracle to win the game.

It didn’t take long for players to realize this interaction, which caused Mind Over Matter to absolutely explode in price. Over two days, Mind Over Matter gained $8 in value on the secondary market, but isselling for almost $20 over its original price. You can still find moderately played copies of Mind Over Matter for $30, but lightly played and near-mint copies are currently selling for around $55!

Notably, Mind Over Matter only has one printing from Exodus, a very old MTG set released back in 1998. As readers should know from past finance articles, any card that has an increase in interest like this one that only has one scarce printing is bound to see a massive increase in price. There are countless examples highlighted in our finance archives.

Read More: The Rarest MTG Card May Be Too Rare For Its Own Good

Damning Verdict

damning verdict

Damning Verdict is a bit harder to pinpoint why it suddenly saw a 300% increase over the past month. Counter decks have become a lot more popular with the introduction of All Will Be One in MTG’s newest set, but no one really knows exactly why this card is seeing a massive increase in price despite being a new versatile option for a variety of EDH decks.

aragorn and arwen, wed

That said, a new Lord of the Rings card was introduced that does synergize well with Damning Verdict: Aragorn and Arwen, Wed. One common comment with Aragorn and Arwen is that the card seems to have a rather weak payoff for six mana. This is, notably, one of the face cards of the new Lord of the Rings MTG starter kit, a series which has been known to provide some less powerful exclusive cards.

that said, after Aragorn and Arwen, Wed manages to enter the battlefield, it grants +1/+1 counters to your entire board of creatures except for itself. As such, all of your other creatures become immune to the effect of Damning Verdict.

In terms of price, Damning Verdict from the Streets of New Capenna Commander decks was going for about $2. The card currently has a massive rollercoaster of different prices it is selling for. You can consistently find copies of Damning Verdict going for $8 and $3.50. This is actually a slight decrease from the card’s more expensive selling points of $10.

Since both prices mentioned seem to be pretty consistent, finding a copy of this card for $4-$5 doesn’t seem too unrealistic. That said, don’t be surprised if your LGS is asking a surprising premium on Damning Verdict because it is selling for higher prices.

Read More: Ancient Staple Creates Broken Deck, Exploding 500% in Price!

Urza’s Saga

urza's saga

Urza’s Saga is probably the most powerful Saga card currently available in Magic: the Gathering. The card currently runs the Modern metagame and participates in the Legacy and Vintage ones. To top it all off, Urza’s Saga is already incredibly powerful in the Commander format due to its ability to tutor Commander super staples like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt to the battlefield. As such, Urza’s Saga tends to command a pretty stable price, but a recently spoiled Lord of the Rings card may increase the price temporarily.

Tom Bombadil

Tom Bombadil is an incredible Commander for an archetype that many MTG players may have never considered before his reveal: Saga tribal. Since Urza’s Saga is the most powerful Saga of them all, players and Lord of the Rings fans new to the game looking to build a Tom Bombadil EDH deck may want to pick these up. Notably, as mentioned by a level two Judge, Tom Bombadil doesn’t necessarily need a Saga to die to trigger its ability; he only needs the saga’s final chapter to resolve. Since that’s the case, cards like Power Conduit can reset Bombadil’s trigger every turn while keeping your Sagas from dying.

power conduit

Urza’s Saga is only seeing a slight increase in price from around $32 to $36. It is important to note that copies of this card fluctuate slightly by price. For now, the cheapest iteration of Urza’s Saga seems to be its List variant, currently available for around $30, so this very small spike may only be occurring with the Modern Masters Two variant. Power Conduit has not yet seen an increase in price or interest as a result of Bombadil’s spoiling.

Read More: Lord of the Rings First Look Reveals Rarest MTG Card in History!

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