Yesterday, MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, released his teaser for the upcoming Hobbit set. As always, this teaser hinted at a bunch of mechanics, themes, and card names, which got MTG players guessing. One detail in particular, however, has seemingly piqued players’ interests, as it has already caused a price spike.
During his teaser, Rosewater revealed that The Hobbit will contain “a bunch of Dwarf Typal cards.” Potentially, these new cards could dramatically boost the archetype’s power in Commander, which would theoretically draw a lot of demand. This, in turn, has put a lot of eyes on Dwarven Recruiter, which has spiked in price recently as it looks like a fantastic spec.
MTG Dwarven Recruiter
Originally released way back in Odyssey, Dwarven Recruiter is, essentially, just the Dwarf Typal version of Goblin Recruiter. Like this classic card, Dwarven Recruiter puts any number of Dwarves you want onto the top of your library. While this single card can perfectly set up your game plan, Dwarven Recruiter has always had one key detail holding it back.
Unlike Goblins, in Commander, Dwarves just aren’t that powerful of a Typal archetype. There are some powerful cards, like Magda, Brazen Outlaw, and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, but there’s little in-archetype support. For better or worse, most Dwarfs in MTG are equipment or artifact-focused cards, rather than caring about Dwarves.
Now, it seems like The Hobbit may change this at long last, giving Dwarven Recruiter a real home. This, in turn, has made Dwarven Recruiter quite a hot commodity, as the card saw a ton of sales yesterday. While this card is already played in around 8,300 Commander decks, we can expect that number to increase very soon.
The Spike
Thanks to not really having a solid home in any format, Dwarven Recruiter has long been an affordable MTG card. This card being reprinted via The List helped this, too, as the original 2001 Odyssey printing is somewhat scarce. Due to this scarcity, this variant sold for around $1.80 back in June, while The List variant was $1.08.
Sadly, both of these printings have now spiked in price, with the Odyssey variant leading the way. Currently, a near-mint copy from this set will run you $6.98, while The List copies are just $4.99. While this is a notable saving, The List variant has still spiked 362% in just a few weeks, and it might not stop there.
Unfortunately, even if you don’t care about card condition, there’s not a great deal of savings to be found right now. Technically, you can pick up a lightly played Odyssey copy for $4.49, but there’s only one copy at this price. After that, prices for any condition jump to $5 and beyond, so you’re better off looking at The List variant.
The Future
Right now, while Dwarven Recruiter might look like a sure thing, this spike is hardly cut and dry. For starters, there’s a non-zero chance that Dwarven Recruiter could be reprinted in the set in some capacity. While this isn’t guaranteed, since The Hobbit doesn’t have precons or a bonus sheet, it hasn’t been ruled out yet.
Even if Dwarven Recruiter doesn’t get reprinted in The Hobbit, the new Dwarf Typal support might not be that exciting. Should it not inspire players to build around the archetype, then the demand for this card could be a lot lower than expected. Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but we should find out more soon, at least.
This weekend, during MagicCon: Amsterdam, Wizards of the Coast will kick off The Hobbit’s spoiler season. With a panel scheduled for Saturday, we should get our first look at some of the Dwarf Typal cards that Mark Rosewater has teased. Potentially, should these cards be good enough, Dwarven Recruiter could see a second price spike as a result. Whether or not that will happen, however, remains to be seen.
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