Thankfully, after almost two decades of waiting, the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed in January didn’t disappoint. Not only was this set oozing with flavor and nostalgic throwbacks, but there are tons of powerful cards too. While the majority of these new gems are suited for Commander play, competitive players did get a few treats as well.
While these new cards didn’t explode right out of the gate, their strength was put on full display at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed. With multiple new decks appearing at the event, it’s clear that this highly anticipated set has provided a major competitive shakeup. More than just refreshing the meta, this even managed to contain a potentially ban-worthy threat.
To top it all off, one of the breakout decks from Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, Dimir Excruciator, ended up winning the entire event. Since then, this deck has become a staple within the new Standard metagame, consistently putting up strong results. Unsurprisingly, thanks to this, several of the deck’s core cards, including its titular demon, have spiked in price.
MTG Doomsday Excruciator
Released back in Duskmourn: House of Horror, Doomsday Excruciator is a very powerful, albeit mana-intensive, MTG card. Essentially, when cast, Doomsday Excruciator puts each player on a six-turn clock. When combined with force draw effects, like the recently spiked Insatiable Avarice, this combo can end games surprisingly quickly.
That being said, Doomsday Excruciator isn’t exactly easy to cast thanks to its BBBBBB mana cost. Not only is this only viable in mono-black decks, but it’s common for Standard games to end before turn six. Thankfully, the Dimir Excruciator deck can use Superior Spider-Man to solve literally all of these problems.
By preserving the cast effect from the graveyard, Superior Spider-Man is a cheaper and easier way to get Doomsday Excruciator into play. Alongside a suite of discard effects, like Winternight Stories, this allows the deck to compete in the Standard metagame. More than just compete, however, Dimir Excruciator decks are consistently putting up strong results.
Frequently finishing in the top eight of Standard Leagues and Challenges, Dimir Excruciator is now a key player in Standard. Considering this deck was barely played before the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed and Deceit, this is quite the turnaround. Notably, this card is barely played in Commander, too, as the casting cost remains a huge hurdle there.
Unsurprisingly, with demand for Doomsday Excruciator shooting up overnight, the price of this card has similarly exploded. That being said, in the grand scheme of MTG, this card still doesn’t break the bank, even post price spike. Should this deck continue to perform and demand increase, however, then it could keep climbing.
The Spike
Before Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed happened, Doomsday Excruciator was a very cheap MTG card. Selling for just $0.37 on average, before it made its Pro Tour appearance, this card has long been just a bulk rare. After it appeared at, and then won Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, however, Doomsday Excruciator saw a huge sales spike.
In two days, over 750 near-mint non-foil copies of Doomsday Excruciator were sold on TCGplayer. With almost 200 additional copies being sold in the following week, demand for this card has been fairly steady. This, in turn, has pushed this Demon’s price up dramatically, with the market price reaching $1.70.
Unfortunately, while Doomsday Excruciator isn’t hugely expensive right now, the price of near-mint non-foil listings is already above the market average. With new copies selling for $1.88, it may not be long before the market price figure climbs even higher. Considering the price that the Borderless variant is currently going for, this might not take long.
At the moment, a near-mint non-foil Borderless copy of Doomsday Excruciator will set you back $3.99. Considering this variant used to be worth just $0.43, this version has seen a 827% price spike. Thankfully, while supply is down and prices are up across the board, there are a few slightly cheaper copies left on the market.
With lightly played default variant copies of Doomsday Excruciator going for $1.10, there’s technically slight savings to be had. Realistically, though, considering they’re not a great deal more, the near-mint copies are likely a better bet. Currently, there are even a fair few of these remaining on the market, but it might not stay that way forever.
The Future
For better or worse, with minimal Commander demand, Doomsday Excruciator’s price is largely dependent on its Standard performance. Sadly, this makes it very difficult to predict where it might end up, but I’m not exactly optimistic about its future. While Dimir Excruciator is a powerful deck, we’re getting a ton of new Standard-legal cards throughout 2026.
Even if the leaked TMNT MTG cards don’t end up being impactful, we’re still getting five more sets in 2026 after that. In theory, any one of these future sets could end up warping the Standard metagame or creating a new ban-worthy menace. If this happens, Dimir Excruciator could end up pushed out of the meta, causing the card’s price to crash.
At the same time, we could theoretically get a new card that pushes Dimir Excruciator even further into the spotlight. A faster way to cast Doomsday Excruciator, or even better forced draw, could make this archetype even more competitive. Should this hypothetical become reality, then this current price spike could just be the start.
Ultimately, as much as we might try, we sadly can’t predict the future of MTG. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens over the next few months as more sets get released.
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