It’s been nearly three weeks since Secrets of Strixhaven hit store shelves, and the set is still sending out ripples on the secondary market. As always, the new Commander precons for the set have caused most of the price spikes here, but the main set has some movers, too. In particular, one new rare from the set unlocks a new infinite combo with Lyla, Holographic Assistant. As a result, Lyla’s price has risen far above what you’d expect from an uncommon.
Lyla, Holographic Assistant MTG
As MTG cards go, Lyla, Holographic Assistant is very simple, but surprisingly effective. Its unique counter-placing ability makes it a fantastic addition to the many, many +1/+1 counter decks in Commander. Here, it can passively progress your game plan each turn with no extra investment, putting extra counters on payoff creatures like Kami of Whispered Hopes and Evolution Witness. Lyla only gets better as you factor in all the card draw most Commander decks run, too.
Lyla’s versatile ability also unlocks a ton of different infinite combo lines, with cards like Scurry Oak and Sage of Hours. Though these lines have been available in Commander since last year, it’s a new combo enabled by Secrets of Strixhaven that is pushing the price of Lyla up. Alongside Pensive Professor, Lyla lets you draw your entire deck in one turn. This immediately sets you up for a Thassa’s Oracle win with just two cards, and as early as turn four, to boot. On top of that, it’s even mono-blue, meaning you can run Lyla in the command zone for extra redundancy.
The Spike
Curiously, despite Pensive Professor being revealed on March 31st, the price of Lyla, Holographic Assistant didn’t explode overnight. Instead, it seemingly took around a week for players to discover the combo potential of these cards, as it wasn’t until April 5th that sales spiked. After this, it wasn’t long before near-mint non-foil prices skyrocketed, climbing from $2.70 to $12 in a little over a month.
A big part of this spike is Lyla’s surprising scarcity. While it’s an uncommon, being a Welcome Deck exclusive means it’s much rarer than usual. You can only get this card in non-foil in the blue Welcome Deck, or open it in foil at a 7.9% rate in Spider-Man Collector Boosters. For this reason, those looking to score a better deal can do so by grabbing Lyla’s foil printing instead. Since this is the card’s more common printing, it can be had for around $10.50 near-mint, or as low as $9.30 lightly-played.
The Future
Going forward, Lyla, Holographic actually seems fairly secure price-wise. While the Pensive Professor combo caused the recent spike, it’s far from Lyla’s only useful interaction, with several other combos available. Since Wizards also prints new +1/+1 counter support cards regularly, Lyla should only get better over time, too.
That said, the MTG secondary market is nothing if not unpredictable. Lyla could see its price drop again in the future for any number of reasons, such as Wizards printing an identical effect, or even just reprinting Lyla somewhere. While this feels less likely than usual, given Lyla’s status as a scarce Universes Beyond card, ultimately only time will tell where this Artifact advisor will end up.
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