In the lead-up to the TMNT set, the MTG financial markets were surprisingly stagnant. Outside of a few Mutants spiking in price thanks to new synergies, we didn’t see the usual reaction. Instead of the latest precon moving mountains, it seems Lorywn Eclipsed remained relevant for far longer than expected.
Now, however, it appears that the tide may finally be changing. Now that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set is officially playable, following prereleases starting, several cards are climbing. Thanks to a new combo, we might even have a new contender for the most expensive card in the set.
MTG Cool but Rude
From the moment that it was revealed, it was obvious that Cool But Rude was one of the best MTG cards in this set. Like many Class cards, this offers fantastic utility across its three modes, each one of which is reasonably costed. Between providing easy looting, damage via discard, and a two-mana Gamble, this card does it all.
Thanks to all of this utility, Cool but Rude felt like a shoo-in for Standard, Commander, and maybe even Modern. At the very least, the discard synergies this card enables made it look like a true future staple. Now, however, it turns out that basic synergy was just the tip of the iceberg, as this Class has combo potential.
With Cool but Rude at level two, you can use Necrodominance to draw enough cards to one-shot your opponent. At worst, even if your opponent is still at 20 life, drawing enough to discard ten will only cost 15 life. While this technically makes this combo viable, admittedly, it’s not the strongest in Modern.
Thanks to the clunky mana cost of Necrodominance, realistically, this is a turn four combo most of the time. On top of that, you only really have to turn one to do anything outside of playing this combo’s cards, but the archetype’s many free spells can smooth things over. Despite that, this may mean this combo isn’t competitive in Modern, but it’s still worth considering in Commander.
Even if this combo isn’t good anywhere, Cool but Rude is still certainly worth paying attention to. Thanks to this, the card’s price has been climbing rather quickly since prerelease events began. It’s still early days, but already this card has spiked an impressive 251% in price in just a few days.
The Spike
Due to how early it is in this card’s lifespan, the pricing graph for Cool but Rude looks rather wonky. As usual, presale prices were incredibly high and steadily declined until just before the set’s release day. At its cheapest, near-mint non-foil copies of Cool but Rude were going for $6.26 on average on February 25th.
Since then, the price of this card has been increasing rapidly, thanks to an impressive sales streak. Following the 25th, over 800 near-mint non-foil copies of this card have been sold. So far, this has pushed the market price up to $17.55, but new listings are even more dear.
Currently, if you’re still in the market for a copy of Cool but Rude, you’ll have to pay at least $21.98 on TCGplayer. In theory, prices could easily climb from here, too, since there are only 16 listings left for copies in this condition. Thankfully, these few listings do offer 162 copies in total, but even that’s only enough for a few high-demand days.
Unfortunately, since Cool but Rude is such a new card, there aren’t any cheaper, worse-condition variants available right now. To make matters worse, this card also doesn’t have any alternative art printings that could help boost supply. Thanks to this, Cool but Rude could easily be a lot more scarce and expensive than initially expected.
It’s Not Out Yet
As much as Cool But Rude has all the hallmarks of an expensive MTG card, there is a silver lining. While the TMNT MTG set is legal to play right now, the set hasn’t officially been released just yet. Since this prevents the set from being sold at major retailers for a few more days, technically, the supply is limited.
Once the official release date for the MTG x TMNT set rolls around, there’s a chance new copies will quickly flood the market. If, or rather when, this happens, the price of Cool but Rude could easily crash. That being said, it’s not unheard of for Class cards to be rather expensive, thanks to the lack of other variants.
Innkeeper’s Talent and Artist’s Talent, for instance, are selling for $10 and $9, respectively, right now. Considering both of these cards have multiformat appeal, there’s a chance this is where Cool but Rude will settle. Equally, however, the new TMNT x MTG card may end up seeing more play, causing its price to remain higher.
Ultimately, as always, it’s impossible to predict the future of MTG and especially its financial markets. Realistically, it does feel like the price of Cool but Rude is bound to drop, but that’s hardly guaranteed. For better or worse, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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