To put it lightly, the prerelease weekend for Lorwyn Eclipsed didn’t exactly go to plan. Thanks to a production mix-up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards ended up appearing early, dominating the weekend’s headlines. Despite the sheer volume of leaks that happened, however, Lorwyn Eclipsed is still managing to hold onto the spotlight.
Considering that Lorwyn Eclipsed has no shortage of powerful cards that are now finally playable, this isn’t totally surprising. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen incredible demand for the set’s precons, and that hasn’t slowed down. This continued demand has caused some MTG cards, like Animar, Soul of Elements, to become seriously expensive.
MTG Animar, Soul of Elements
First released back in Commander 2011, Animar, Soul of Elements has long been a staple in Commander. While Animar’s color identity is somewhat restrictive, any on-color creature-focused deck gets a serious boost from playing it. You barely even have to lean into building around Animar, too, since all you have to do is play creatures.
Thanks to this innate strength, Animar has long been a popular inclusion within Magus Lucea Kane and Eshkim Temur’s Roar decks. Naturally, Animar, Soul of Elements also works great within Elemental Typal decks like Horde of Notions. Due to the high casting cost of many Elementals, Animar can provide incredible value, so long as it sticks around.
Thanks to this value, and the potential to become a serious beater with in-built protection, Animar is also a popular Commander option. According to EDHREC, over the past two years, Animar, Soul of Elements is the 30th most popular Commander in Magic. Helming over 20,700 decks, Animar is definitely a format staple, but it’s also a real contender in cEDH, too.
More recently, Animar, Soul of Elements is an auto-include upgrade to the new Dance of the Elements precon. Specifically, Animar works wonders with Ashling, the Limitless, thanks to her Evoke ability. Not only will Animar get a counter whenever you Evoke a creature, but it can also reduce the cost of this ability, potentially making it free to use.
Thanks to this stellar synergy, Animar, Soul of Elements has already found its way into over 2,200 Ashling, the Limitless decks. Now that Lorwyn Eclipsed is actually playable, this number is bound to increase in the coming weeks. Even before then, the growing demand for Animar has caused one hell of a price spike.
The Spike
Due to being a Temur Commander staple for over a decade, Animar, Soul of Elements has long been a fairly expensive MTG card. Over the past few months, copies of Animar have been selling for between $10 to $12 on average. Thanks to Lorwyn Eclipsed, however, the price of Animar has shot up significantly.
Now, every single variant of Animar, Soul of Elements is selling for at least $40. The Double Masters 2022 printing, for example, has spiked up to $41.78, not including shipping. Considering this variant used to be worth $11.55 back in December, this marks a 253% price spike.
While this is already a rather impressive price spike, The List reprint is up even more. Thanks to the slightly cheaper starting price of $10.54 and the current $42.00 price tag, this variant is up 298% to date. As if that wasn’t enough, the Masters 25 printing has spiked a whopping 350%, thanks to its $9.31 starting price.
All this is to say that cheaper copies of Animar, Soul of Elements don’t really exist anymore. Even if you don’t care about quality, you’ll have to pay at least $41.50 for a copy of Animar at the moment. Miraculously, the cheapest copy of Animar is currently the foil Secret Lair variant, which is a nice change.
The Future
Looking ahead, while we can’t predict the future, it seems unlikely that Animar, Soul of Elements’s price spike will last. Realistically, thanks to the Temur color identity of this legend, it can only be played in so many decks. This will always keep a lid on its potential, even when synergistic new Commanders and precons are printed.
That being said, while we do expect the price to fall over time, there are a lot of new decks now using it. While EDHREC stats don’t guarantee sales, having 2,200 new Ashling, the Limitless decks will still put a dent in supply. In theory, this current supply deficit could take a long time to equalize, keeping the price of Animar higher than usual.
Ultimately, only time will tell where the price of Animar, Soul of Elements will end up settling long term. Potentially, we could see the price of Animar dip when TMNT MTG spoilers are officially revealed, but that’s not guaranteed. Since the leaks from this set haven’t blown MTG players away so far, Lorwyn Eclipsed precons may prove popular or longer than usual.
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