It’s no secret that the Lorwyn Eclipsed precons have been drawing a lot of attention since their reveal. Considering we haven’t gotten a new precon since Edge of Eternities in August, this isn’t a surprise at all. Thankfully, beyond just ending this overly long wait, both of the Lorwyn Eclipsed precons are pretty powerful too.
In particular, the Dance of the Elements precon offers tons of Typal synergy. With plenty of big splashy enters effects and Commanders to exploit them, this deck can quickly snowball to success. That said, while strong right out of the box, this precon isn’t perfect, as there are a fair few compelling upgrades to consider.
As always, it hasn’t taken long for many of these upgrades to spike in price. Since the precons were revealed, we’ve seen consistent movement in the markets, and it hasn’t stopped yet. Now, Cavalier of Dawn is the latest Dance of the Elements upgrade to see a significant spike in price.
MTG Cavalier of Dawn
First released in 2019’s Core Set 2020, Cavalier of Dawn offers tons of value, but it’s never really been that popular. Replacing a major threat with a 3/3, and recurring an artifact or enchantment is good, but not amazing for five mana. Even with having some decent stats and Vigilance attached, not a lot of decks can really make Cavalier of Dawn work.
Ideally, Cavalier of Dawn suits a white-aligned equipment-focused deck, but this archetype isn’t lacking in support. This often means that this classic card will get cut for better options, unless there’s additional synergy at play. Thankfully, this is very much possible thanks to Cavalier of Dawn being a Knight.
Leaning into this creature type, Cavalier of Dawn is a fairly popular inclusion within Sidar Jabar of Zhalfir and Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale decks. While it also appears within a few trigger doubling and creature coping lists, it’s by no means a Commander staple. Still, Cavalier of Dawn sees play in around 21,000 decks, according to EDHREC.
Notably, around 1,500 of these decks are new, thanks to Ashling, the Limitless and the Dance of the Elements precon. Unsurprisingly, this leans on Cavalier of Dawn’s other creature type, Elemental, to exploit the possibilities there. With Ashling, this means Evoking Cavalier of Dawn in for cheaper to get its enters and exits the battlefield effect at once.
Alongside naturally working well with Ashling, Cavalier of Dawn also plays nicely with Mass of Mysteries. By giving this creature Myriad, you can easily remove three extra threats from the board and recur a bunch too. Even if you don’t have targets for the latter ability, the value you can get from Cavalier of Dawn isn’t to be scoffed at.
The Spike
As a decent upgrade to the Dance of the Elements precon, demand for Cavalier of Dawn has increased sharply. Over the past month, just shy of 250 near-mint non-foil copies of this card have been sold. With a further 150 copies in worse condition being sold in the same timeframe, this demand has unsurprisingly hit the market hard.
Thanks to being a mythic from over a decade and a half ago, copies of Cavalier of Dawn aren’t the most common. Even with the recent Special Guest appearance in Aetherdrift, this didn’t provide a ton of extra supply. Thanks to this, the recent surge of demand has been more than enough to push prices up dramatically.
Before prices started to climb, copies of Cavalier of Dawn were selling for around $2.45 on TCGplayer. Considering the card is somewhat usable and fairly rare, this isn’t bad, but it’s hardly breaking the bank. Now, however, near-mint non-foil copies of this card are going for $11.16 on average.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Special Guests variant of Cavalier of Dawn has seen a similar spike, shooting up to $14 currently. Thankfully, if you don’t want to spend quite this much, there are a few cheaper copies on the market right now. Lightly played default frame examples, for instance, are going for just $9.35 currently.
Up and Down
Looking back at Cavalier of Dawn’s price history, this current $11 high might just be the start. Back in 2023, copies of this card spiked all the way up to $17 thanks to March of the Machine. This is when Sidar Jabar of Zhalfir was released, making Knight Typal a big thing for a couple of months.
Notably, it really didn’t take too long for Cavalier of Dawn to fall from grace the first time around. Once Commander Masters was released in July, this card was back down to selling for around $7. Considering the strength of this set’s Commanders, that isn’t a massive surprise, but it nonetheless shows the potential volatility.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to think that things will be much different this time around. While the TMNT leaks aren’t blowing MTG players away, it could still shift interest away from Lorwyn Eclipsed. After that, Secrets of Strixhaven threatens to do the same, so Cavalier of Dawn may only have a few months in the spotlight.
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