It’s been a few days since Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s official release, and we’re already seeing a handful of cards spiking in price. Yesterday, for instance, we discussed Cori-Steel Cutter’s big price spike following a ton of great tournament results.
Beyond just the fluctuation of cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm itself, though, we’re also seeing cards from older sets that synergize with the new toys increase in value. MacCready, Lamplight Mayor, for instance, is currently spiking due to some nice synergies with multiple Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Precons. If you’re looking to upgrade either the Abzan or Mardu deck, this card makes a perfect addition.
MacCready, Lamplight Mayor
MacCready, Lamplight Mayor isn’t the most powerful card individually in a Commander setting. The life drain ability is nice, but because it only triggers off of large attackers, it isn’t a reliable defense mechanism. In order to make MacCready shine brightest, you really want a high density of low-power creatures to attack with.
Well, both the Abzan and Mardu Precons fit the bill nicely. In the case of the Abzan Precon, MacCready pairs particularly well with Felothar, the Steadfast. Felothar encourages you to play a ton of creatures with high toughness and low power, thanks to its card-drawing ability. On top of that, it even lets your creatures with Defender attack, making it easy to pile on damage.
With MacCready and Felothar in play together, all of your zero-power attackers with high toughness become extremely difficult to block and can all deal a lot of damage at once. This is a nasty combination.
Meanwhile, the Mardu deck is all about flooding the board with tokens. Whether you have Neriv, Crackling Vanguard or Zurgo Stormrender at the helm, you’re incentivized to play a variety of different token makers. MacCready rewards you for going wide with low-power creatures all the same.
Being able to attack with a large sum of tokens and not have them get blocked down in combat is a really nice luxury to have.
The Spike
As more and more players looked to make improvements to their Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks, MacCready’s price shot up. A month ago, MacCready was nothing more than a bulk rare. It checked in at 22 cents back on March 15th in traditional, non-foil form, according to TCGplayer market price.
The card rose slightly over the next three weeks, finally cracking the 50-cent threshold 10 days ago. Since then, though, the card has managed to climb to $4.20. This represents a whopping 1809% spike.
Considering how many players are purchasing MacCready, it isn’t too shocking to see it rise in price like this. In the last three days alone, well over 100 separate sales have been completed on TCGplayer for traditional, non-foil copies of MacCready.
The extended art variant of MacCready has also seen a big leap in price over the past few days. While its market price of $2.63 doesn’t sound like a lot, the lowest current sales listing is just under $10. This suggests that demand is continuing to increase significantly.
Inflated Foil Prices
Speaking of increased demand, surge foils of both normal and extended art variants of MacCready have taken a similar pattern to the extreme. In both cases, the market price listing doesn’t fully represent MacCready’s inflated price.
Starting with the traditional surge foil version of MacCready, the market price listed is only $2.90. Yet, the lowest sales listing available is at $19, which is an enormous difference.
Looking back at sales history, there have been more traditional surge foil purchases made in the last two weeks than in the three months prior combined. Couple this with the fact that there are only three traditional surge foil sales listings on TCGplayer to begin with, and it’s clear that surge foils are experiencing a lack of supply as well. This makes a lot of sense, given that surge foils were only available in MTG Fallout Collector Boosters.
Similarly, there are only five current sales listings for extended art surge foils. Despite the market price being $5.82, the lowest sales listing is at $29.22.
Presumably, as hype for the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks dies down, prices of different MacCready variants will start to flatten out. In the short term, though, MacCready has shown no signs of slowing down. Make sure to be on the lookout for any other price shifts among notable Precon upgrades in the near future.