Even before the set has officially been released, there is no shortage of expensive MTG Avatar cards. This isn’t at all surprising, as the set is loaded with high-powered soon-to-be-constructed and Commander staples. That said, it appears one of the set’s most unassuming cards is currently a lot more expensive than expected.
MTG Earthbending Student
As an MTG card, Earthbending Student is just okay. For three mana, it offers decent stats across two bodies and a lord effect, but it’s nothing revolutionary. As an Eternal-legal Avatar card, the applications for this card are limited, but it should be decent in Commander. Earthbending-focused lists, for instance, will likely want this card, but not much beyond that.
While not earth-shattering, giving land creatures Vigilance is still a pretty sweet ability if Earthbending Student sticks around. Getting to attack with all of your Earthbended creatures, while keeping them available as a mana source, is incredibly useful. Plenty of Land Animation-focused decks are bound to want this card, especially those running Ashaya, Soul of the Wild.
While Earthbending Student will have its uses, this card is hardly going to be in demand. In fact, we’d be confident in labeling it as draft chaff if we were just going by power alone. Despite this, the card is currently selling for around $5 on TCGplayer. Or at least it would be, if anyone could get their hands on it.
A Weirdly Rare Uncommon
Earlier today, foil and non-foil copies of Earthbending Student were selling like hotcakes on TCGplayer. This followed a Reddit post that claimed that non-foil copies of the card didn’t actually exist. Looking online, this certainly seemed to be the case, which is incredibly unusual.
Despite being an Eternal-legal MTG Avatar uncommon, Earthbending Student doesn’t appear in either the Jumpstart or Beginner Box product lists. Due to this, MTG players presumed that the card could only be found in Collector Boosters. If this were the case, this specific card would only appear in 2% of Collector Boosters, making it surprisingly rare.
Unsurprisingly, once this rarity was discovered, tons of copies were sold in an instant. According to TCGplayer, most of these sales happened at around $5, while some foil copies even sold for upwards of $11! Considering the expectations around the card’s rarity, even this high price might seem like a steal.
For better or worse, all this sales panic and speculation appears to be for nought. It turns out that all the current hype is misplaced, as the online card lists simply didn’t have the right information. Earthbending Student really is a Jumpstart card after all…
Jumping to Conclusions
Around five hours after TCupcake’s post first drummed up interest, noncomittle revealed we’ve all gotten excited over nothing. Flatly stating, “It is in the jumpstart packs,” apparently, Earthbending Student is simply found in the Toph theme pack. Ultimately, this means it doesn’t have any special rarity and will be as common as all other Jumpstart uncommons.
To say this new information is going to cause a price crash would be an understatement. As much as Earthbending Student does have its uses in Commander, without any unique rarity quirks, it’s definitely not worth $5. Due to this, don’t be surprised when prices end up coming down quickly once more supply floods the market.
Notably, foil copies of Earthbending Student could end up being somewhat expensive still, since they are naturally quite rare. Since this is true for all Jumpstart uncommons, however, I wouldn’t expect a uniquely obscene price tag.
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