As you might expect from the franchise, The Hobbit MTG set had a huge focus on Treasures and Dwarves. While most of the small set’s best Commanders revolved around these themes, there were some other gems, as well. In green, for instance, Bears got a surprising amount of support, which in turn has led to some classic cards spiking in price.
MTG Bearscape
Originally released 25 years ago, Bearscape is… not a very good Magic: The Gathering card. Technically, it can make you a fairly steady stream of tokens; however, you’re spending a lot of mana for not much value. Nowadays, a vanilla 2/2 for two just doesn’t cut it, especially since you have to use your graveyard as a resource to make this happen.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, paying three mana for Bearscape in the first place really makes this enchantment seem unplayable. That said, it can sort of work in Commander in lower-bracket casual decks. This is exactly where Bear Typal decks happen to be already, allowing Bearscape to see surprisingly consistent play.
Thanks to the new Beorn the Fierce, however, Bearscape is now more popular than ever before. This is all down to the buff that Beorn provides, as turning your Bearscape Bears into 4/4’s makes them actually somewhat viable. The card helps enable Beorn’s draw clause too, giving you even more fodder to discard.
With this synergy in mind, it’s little wonder that Beorn the Fierce is responsible for around 1,250 new decks using Bearscape. This, in turn, has caused a significant price spike, especially since supply has always been on the low side. Not only was Bearscape printed as a rare in Odyssey, but the sole Secret Lair reprint didn’t exactly deliver tons of supply.
The Spike
As much as demand for Bearscape has always been rather low, thanks to its rarity, it’s never been that cheap. Back in late June, for instance, a near-mint copy would set you back $4.32, which has been the going rate for a while. Following the prerelease events for The Hobbit kicking off, however, prices have been quickly climbing after just three dozen near-mint sales.
Despite this incredibly low sales volume, prices have still shot up dramatically because good-condition copies are so hard to come by. Now, you’ll have to spend at least $14.99 on a near-mint example, which is a 246% increase. Thankfully, if you’re not fussy about card quality, damaged examples in worse condition start at $7.32.
Realistically, if you are in the market for a copy of Bearscape, your best price-to-condition option is lightly played examples at $9.34. If you want to live it up a little, however, the Secret Lair variant is currently selling for $31.59. Notably, this variant has also spiked, albeit only by 52% in one month, from $20.76.
Bear-ly a Staple
Looking ahead, it’s hard to be overly optimistic about Bearscape’s financial future. While this MTG card does have rarity going for it, and at least one avenue of demand, it’s by no means popular. Outside of specific Bear Typal decks, this is just a bad card, so it’s hard to see how demand will survive long-term.
In theory, once MTG players get their fill of Beorn, sales for Bearscape will surely slow, which should bring prices down. While more niche price spikes often follow this trend, with how rare Bearscape is, there’s no guarantee of this happening. Even if it does, we could be waiting multiple months for prices to slip, especially since this spike appears to be player-driven.
Ultimately, as always, we can only really wait and see what happens, since predicting the future is more art than science. In theory, we could see a shift once Reality Fracture comes along, but even that is no guarantee. Given how beloved a niche archetype like Bear Typal can be, demand could prove surprisingly steady.
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