In preparation for this weekend’s Unfinity and MTG’s Warhammer crossover, a ton of Commander-inspired price movements are hitting the secondary market. In a similar fashion to Magosi, the Waterveil, a new infinite combo based on a spoiled card, is wreaking absolute havoc. This combo is focused on Gonti’s Aether Heart. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Commander’s rising stars this week.
Gonti’s Aether Heart
Like the recent spike of Magosi, the Waterveil, Gonti’s Aether Heart is the core piece of a new infinite combo we wrote about over the weekend. This combo involves a new Brothers’ War spoiled card named Mishra, Eminent One. This is one of the Commanders to the old-bordered Commander decks releasing alongside The Brothers’ War. With Mishra and a card that can create an artifact every turn, you are capable of creating copies of Gonti’s Aether Heart and taking infinite turns. You can read more about that combo here.
Before Mishra’s Spoiling, Gonti’s Aether Heart was not even worth a dollar. On September 29, a small buyout of the card began to flood retailers, with tens of copies being purchased per buyer. This was a significant change from before the spoiling when the card was not even purchased daily. While the buyout was substantial, it does pale slightly compared to the one seen for Magosi. Gonti’s Aether Heart follows the same trends that affected Magosi, however. It only has one printing from an older set. Kaladesh is much more recent than Original Zendikar, which may have affected speculators’ enthusiasm a bit. Regardless, the spike between cards is comparable.
Gonti’s Aether Heart is now selling for as high as $12 in some orders. While the average is much closer to $7, there are still players buying 50 or more copies of this card at a time as of the day this article was written. Anyone who bought in on this card when it averaged around $1 can expect massive returns. To demonstrate just how impactful this is, a speculator that bought 100 Aether Hearts for $1 could potentially sell them for a $1200 return!
Other Combo Pieces
Alongside Mishra, Eminent One, and Gonti’s Aether Heart, you need a card that can constantly create artifacts to ensure you have enough Energy for the infinite turns combo to work correctly. Following this, we suggested a few solid and silly options in our last article to connect the dots. Karn, Living Legacy was one of the more robust options available, and it also saw a significant increase in quantities sold on the 29th. This hasn’t really raised the price of Karn much, but as many as 24 copies of this card were selling per order throughout the day, according to TCGplayer. An increase in quantity sold can also be seen for Karn’s full-art variant as of September 29, but no orders are purchasing an unusual number of copies.
Saheeli, the Gifted, was another card on our radar as a strong potential option to fulfill the final condition to this infinite that was in the same colors as Mishra. This card has not seen any relevant price changes. If you’re interested in picking up this combo for your Mishra preconstructed deck, buying this now may not be a bad idea in case interest rises.
Spirit of Resistance
Another relatively unknown card that spiked to relevance last week, Spirit of Resistance is fantastic in any Commander deck that features a Commander with all five colors. Jodah, the Unifier, as mentioned before, has been an incredibly popular Commander that was released from Dominaria United. Spirit of Resistance is a fantastic card there.
Spirit of Resistance saw a massive spike throughout the week. This card averaged around $3 at the beginning of September but is currently selling for as much as $25 in Near Mint condition! Foils are even more ridiculous, with near-mint copies pushing $100. We talked more about this card in a recent article.
Irenicus’s Vile Duplication
Another bizarre Baldur’s Gate card is seeing a spike out of nowhere after players wrote this set off as a bust. Irenicus’s Vile Duplication is now worth $6, which is relatively high for a recently printed uncommon card. Notably, foils are much more popular in the marketplace currently, but prices between non-foil and foil versions of this card seem the same. This is likely due to Collector Boosters‘ impact on foil multipliers overall with recent products.
Considering that this card was only worth less than a dollar at the end of July, there’s been a strong, gradual spike here. This spike intensified around the end of September, where the card was worth between $2 and $3. This has been a particularly popular option for a Commander from Dominaria United: Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief. Any deck that is interested in creating copies of their Commander, however, will likely have interest in this card.
Commander’s Dominance Will Likely Continue for the Next Month
Don’t get me wrong; constructed formats are still affecting the marketplace. Ardent Plea, for example, saw a significant increase in response to Yorion Rhino’s increased popularity in Modern. That said, October is being dominated by products primarily aimed at the Commander audience. It makes sense that most price changes will likely be focused on Commander until we get deep into Brothers’ War spoiler season. Note that, for the first time since Covid, November will start featuring major paper tournaments in the form of the Regional Championship series. As players begin to prepare for those, we may see an uptick in Pioneer’s dominance on the secondary market in particular. It will be an exciting time for MTG, but probably not more interesting than the recent release of one of MTG’s most controversial products ever.
