With Magic players’ wallets full of expendable cash everywhere following the Christmas weekend, players are beginning to get scratch some Singles off their wish lists. The market movements over the past two weeks have been pretty volatile as a result, and some new Commander staples are still being discovered. If you’re looking to catch a glimpse of the hottest new tech on the MTG market, look no further! Here are some of the most significant market movements for MTG Singles in the past few weeks!
Chaos Defiler
Chaos Defiler has been making headlines everywhere in the past few weeks. This card managed to pull off an absolutely incredible spike, starting at less than a dollar at the beginning of December and to spike up to $10!
It may be a bit difficult to figure out why such a middle-of-the-road card is seeing a massive price spike. Its ability is fine but nothing out of the ordinary for a five-mana creature. Well, Chaos Defiler is an artifact creature, which means it synergizes exceptionally well with common strategies emerging from new cards in Commander from The Brothers’ War.
This is an artifact creature that has a decent removal ability on death. This means Chaos Defiler synergizes really well with cards like Goblin Welder. Goblin Welder is on a severe uptick with the release of some incredibly powerful artifacts it can cheat out with ease (namely Portal to Phyrexia), so cards that synergize with the Welder are growing in popularity. To top this, Mishra, Eminent One is the best home for all these cards, which is one of the new preconstructed decks released alongside The Brothers’ War.
There is a chance that Chaos Defiler will be playable in Legacy as well. While I personally do not see it, we won’t know how viable this card truly is until it gets released on MTG Online. Currently, the card is not available virtually.
Read More: Multiple MTG Cards Spiking in Price Make This Set a Fantastic Holiday Gift!
Ravenous Baboons
As most Commander product typically does, Jumpstart 2022 is starting to impact other cards on the secondary market. Kibo, Uktabi Prince is a new tribal Commander from the set that supports Apes and Monkeys. While Ravenous Baboons is a perfectly run-of-the-mill creature in normal circumstances, it turns into a niche creature that offers a decent upside in a deck with a significant uptick in interest.
Ravenous Baboons’ ability may look a bit irrelevant, but it can be surprisingly massive as a one-off answer to some nightmare cards in Commander. Ignoring the niche and hated land destruction strategy, Ravenous Baboons can keep common Landfall strategies in check. Any deck that runs into a Field of the Dead strategy that isn’t trying to win explosively with a two-card combo will struggle to take down an endless horde of zombies. Ravenous Baboons can stop the problem at its source. Baboons can also stop other common utility lands that can cause trouble, like Rogue’s Passage, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, degenerate strategies with Urborg-Esque lands, and more.
Ravenous Baboons was only worth 50 cents as of the end of October but has quickly spiked up to $5 on average past that point. This card only has one Rare printing from Exodus, making it much scarcer than the demand that the card is currently seeing.
Keep Caution
It’s important to note that this card has a few outliers in sold pricing. There are a lot of one-off instances of Ravenous Baboons selling for more than $20, and the card’s listing price is pretty high compared to what the card seems to be selling for. There may be some artificial price hiking and buyouts at work here. As a result, so be careful if you want to invest in this card. As such, also be prepared to buy this card at a potential loss if you want to play it in your own Ape decks.
Read More: Players Baffled By Holiday MTG Phyrexia All Will Be One Leak!
Their Name is Death
This seems to be the season of Warhammer 40K cards. Their Name is Death started spiking relatively recently, beginning to rise up from under a dollar in November to about $4 currently. This trend matches the flavor of the quarter, with new Commander decks appearing all over the place. Artifact-focused decks are all the rage, and a one-sided board wipe in something like Urza Construct tribal seems absolutely devastating if well-timed. I would expect this card to continue rising in price for a little while, but if the flavor of the week starts to move away from artifact creatures, this card could start finding its price point.
Thunderhawk Gunship
Continuing the Warhammer 40K trend is Thunderhawk Gunship. This Esika’s Chariot-like Vehicle creates two Astartes Warriors with which it can Crew itself upon entry. Past that point, Thunderhawk Gunship gives all attacking creatures flying, which is absolutely lethal in a deck that functions similarly to Urza’s Iron Alliance.
Much like Their Name is Death, Thunderhawk Gunship started spiking aggressively in November. Though this started out at around $1.50, the card is now worth about $5. Some players are buying mass quantities of this card in an attempt to speculate, however, so there is a chance that this card will lose some value while trying to find its price point later on.
Read More: Players Discover a Fresh Influx of $100 New Cards!?
