It’s no secret that the Standard MTG format isn’t in the best spot right now. Vivi Cauldron is still ruling the roost, leaving many players waiting on November’s ban announcement. According to Wizards, this announcement is now expected to hit multiple cards, so the meta should be in for a significant shake-up.
Sadly, until then, the format seems to be rather stagnant, as nothing can topple Vivi. That said, MTG players aren’t just rolling over and letting Vivi Cauldron run unopposed until the deck is banned. Recently, some anti-meta tech choices have been emerging and spiking in price as they gain popularity.
Azure Beastbinder
When it was first previewed, Azure Beastbinder just seemed like a worse version of Kitesail Larcenist. Sure, Azure Beastbinder is one mana cheaper, but Larcenist is stronger, more evasive, more effective, and it has Ward. Over time, however, Beastbinder has come out on top, as that one mana matters a whole lot in current Standard.
Whether you’re on the play or the draw, Azure Beastbinder can follow up Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, completely shutting it down. While this will only last for effectively two turns, it importantly gives you wiggle room. This can allow you to simply get ahead or hold up mana for a cheeky Tishana’s Tidebinder.
Beyond just dealing with the Soul Cauldron itself, Azure Beastbinder is useful against basically any creature in Standard. Most Dimir Midrange decks and Simic Aggro decks, where this also sees play, have enough toughness to make blocking unfavorable. For Dimir Midrange, this opens up synergy with Enduring Curiosity, basically guaranteeing card draw.
Thanks to this utility, Azure Beastbinder is seeing play in the majority of Dimir Midrange decks at the moment. A lot of decks are running four copies, in fact, thanks to the format needing so much removal right now. Miraculously, the card has even seen some fringe Legacy play, although it’s not a staple in the format.
In Commander, Azure Beastbinder is still powerful, but it’s by no means a super staple. Getting to shut down a card for an entire turn cycle is useful, but Commander isn’t exactly short on removal. Thanks to this, Beastbinder is more likely to appear in Rat and Rogue Typal lists, rather than on cEDH tables.
The Spike
Like many of the price spikes that we’ve seen recently, Azure Beastbinder has been steadily climbing over the past few months. As MTG players looked to deal with Vivi Cauldron, this card has become a needed pickup. This has caused the price of Azure Beastbinder to climb from $0.48 to $2.58 over the past few months.
With over 300 copies being sold in a few days, it appears investors attempted to capitalize on the growing demand back in August. While this did work somewhat, there’s still a surprisingly good amount of copies available on TCGplayer. At the time of writing, 137 near-mint listings offer a total of 345 copies, and prices aren’t obscene there either.
In fact, the price for a near-mint copy of Azure Beastbinder is currently lower than the market price on TCGplayer. There are a few copies available for under $2 right now, with the cheapest listed at $1.65. That said, prices do increase pretty quickly after this point, so this discrepancy may soon solve itself.
Regardless of when that happens, the current discrepancy shows the influence of TCGplayer Direct once again. As we often see with in-demand cards, this convenience-oriented program can pump up prices prematurely. With TCGplayer Direct copies selling for $8,49 a pop, it’s no wonder they can disrupt the average price.
Sadly, while some worse condition and foil copies are available for slightly cheaper, there aren’t any amazing hidden deals. The Showcase variant is unsurprisingly more expensive at the moment, having similarly spiked 333.33% in price. That said, while prices are up at the moment, they may not stay that way for long.
The Future
As much as Azure Beastbinder is a good fit for Dimir Midrange right now, it’s impossible to ignore the impending bans. Should multiple cards be hit and multiple archetypes affected, then this card could easily fall out of favor. This isn’t guaranteed to happen, of course, but it’s difficult to predict what the format will look like in one month.
In theory, Beastbinder will still be a needed card until bans happen, so the price may continue to increase. There’s a chance, however, that as bans near, MTG players will look to offload their copies in case the card is no longer needed. We’ve already seen this happen to Vivi Ornitier, which has been tumbling in price over the last few months.
Realistically, Vivi is worth significantly more than Beastbinder, so offloading copies of the Rat in advance is likely unnecessary. Even if you keep hold of your entire playset, you’re only losing around $8 in value, at most. Factoring in the faff of buying and selling copies, should Azure Beastbinders be needed again, there’s a good chance many players won’t sell.
Ultimately, as always, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens. If bans change the shape of the Standard format, then everything will be up in the air, but there’s no telling what will be banned just yet. Admittedly, it’s basically guaranteed that Vivi is out the door, but beyond that, it’s all a mystery. Thankfully, we don’t have to wait too long now, as November 10th is fast approaching.
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