As was expected after our first taste of the set, Mystery Booster Commander Edition is a slam dunk set. Even with only 60 new-to-Commander cards, each one of them feels like a love letter to fans. With flavorful deep cuts and insane new mechanics, this set may go down as one of the all-time greats, despite not having a retail release.
Within the set, it’s hard to pick a favorite card; however, Whtz, the Bibliophile definitely caught players’ attention. Breaking Commander’s rules wide open by removing the cap on deck size, this new legend is utterly wild. Beyond just looking like tons of fun, this legend finally unlocks the potential of Battle of Wits, allowing it to finally end games in Commander.
MTG Battle of Wits
With Commander having a cap on deck size of 100 cards, including your Commander, Battle of Wits has long been useless. If you don’t have over 200 cards in your deck, running this card is objectively useless. Due to this, it’s no wonder that the card sees barely any play in Commander, according to EDHREC.
Appearing in just 776 decks, the majority of Battle of Wits’ play comes from Claire D’Loon, Joy Sculptor. Notably, this Unfinity legend isn’t even legal in Commander, so you’d have to navigate Rule Zero discussions to greenlight it. Once allowed, however, Claire’s ability to make tokens permanent and go into your library does make Battle of Wits wins possible.
Now, however, Rule Zero discussions aren’t needed to make this wincon viable, as Whtz, the Bibliophile simply allows it. Letting you run decks as big as you want, or more realistically around 240 cards, Battle of Wits wins are entirely possible. Considering this hasn’t even been possible before, it’s no wonder that there’s been an immense rush of demand to pick up this card.
The Spike
Realistically, calling the recent sales surge for Battle of Wits a ‘rush of demand’ is a bit of an understatement. Since the card was revealed yesterday, over 1,250 near-mint copies of the card have been sold. This has cleaved almost all of the available supply from the market, causing prices to shoot up across the board overnight.
Curiously, while prices are up across the board, Battle of Wits is still a rather affordable card in most cases. The Magic 2013 printing of the card, for instance, will only set you back $1.90 at the moment. While this is almost budget territory, the card has still spiked 804% overnight, since it was $0.21 a couple of days ago.
Notably, thanks to being the most accessible printing, the Magic 2013 variant is also the cheapest. The List printing, for example, is a slight step up at $2.99, including shipping, while 9th Edition copies are selling for $3.50. Technically, thanks to their low supply, copies from Odyssey are now listed for $49.99, although sales have only peaked at around $2.
If you do want to spend on Battle of Wits, however, there is a Secret Lair printing. Featuring art styled around The Princess Bride, this is a fantastically comical variant, although it is now $69.49. Bafflingly, copies have even sold for more than this during the initial sales surge, with sales peaking at $72.
The Fall?
Considering Battle of Wits hasn’t been playable before in Commander, the fact that it’s spiking now makes total sense. That being said, there’s a very real chance that this spike is somewhat shortsighted. While there is a lot of hype for Whtz and Battle of Wits, acquiring this Commander might not be easy.
Not only does Mystery Booster Commander Edition not launch until MagicCon: Atlanta in November, but scarcity is a huge potential problem. We’ve seen how quickly past Mystery Booster products have sold out previously, and this set will surely follow this trend. After all, not only are there mechanically unique cards this time, but there are still plenty of insane reprints, too.
If scarcity is a problem, then much of the demand for Battle of Wits won’t end up being fulfilled immediately. Instead, players and investors alike would have to wait for the next release alongside MagicCon: Detroit in February. Hopefully, between the four MagicCons happening next year, there should be enough supply, but that remains to be seen.
Ultimately, for better or worse, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens with this spike. For now, Battle of Wits still isn’t a very expensive card, but that could all change soon. Considering how much supply has been stripped from the market, it won’t take much more for prices to jump dramatically.
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