As a set chock full of new legends, it’s no surprise that Marvel Super Heroes is having a big impact on Commander. Even though the set has only been playable for one week, Commander demand has already caused fluctuations in the secondary market. Thanks to its synergy with the ever-popular legend The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, for example, Earthcraft has spiked significantly in price.
MTG Earthcraft
Printed way back in Tempest, 29 years ago, Earthcraft is still a very powerful card by today’s standards. Essentially, tapping your creatures for mana makes developing your board trivial, especially in go-wide decks. While this is very powerful, Earthcraft is at its best when it’s facilitating countless infinite combos.
While Earthcraft combos aren’t anything new, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl enables one of the easiest and most effective combos yet. All you need are four Squirrels and a basic Forest in play, and Earthcraft lets you activate The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’s final ability repeatedly for infinite tokens and mana.
Interestingly, this Commander’s typal theme also makes a great home for Squirrel Nest, which produces infinite tokens alongside Earthcraft. These synergies have helped Earthcraft be included in 850 The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl decks and counting, according to EDHREC. Considering that Earthcraft is an expensive Reserved List card that’s hard to obtain, this is an impressive number.
Beyond its Squirrel-themed appeal, Earthcraft has been a staple mana engine in Rograkh/Thrasios cEDH Partner shells for quite some time. Earthcraft also synergizes as a tap enabler for Kona, Rescue Beastie and Emmara, Soul of the Accord decks. Thanks to this, Earthcraft is more than just a one-trick pony.
The Spike
Due to Earthcraft’s scarcity, thanks to being on the Reserved List, copies weren’t cheap even before the price spike. Back on May 29th, near-mint copies were selling for around $150. Once The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was spoiled in early June, however, Earthcraft sales rose right away. This has caused supply to plummet, leaving only six near-mint listings on TCGplayer, which start at $301.48.
Sadly, if you’re in the market for a copy of Earthcraft, this price spike isn’t limited to just near-mint copies. Worse condition examples have similarly been selling fast, leaving just 15 copies left on TCGplayer. With prices starting at $251 for even a lightly played example, there’s no escape from this price spike.
Hype Through the Roof
While most Commander-based price spikes tend to be fairly short-lived, Earthcraft could easily go the distance. Not only is there a lot of demand for The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl right now, but as a Reserved List card, there’s no hope for Earthcraft being reprinted. On top of this, Earthcraft is powerful enough that it’s bound to be broken again in the future, causing demand to spike once more.
Realistically, the only thing that would hold the price of Earthcraft back is the existence of similar effects. While they do need a Haste enabler, Cryptolith Rite and Enduring Vitality can essentially do the same thing at a fraction of the price. Still, Earthcraft will always be in a league of its own, and clearly, it has no trouble selling for obscene prices.
Ultimately, while Earthcraft does look very stable, it’s impossible to predict the future of MTG. A new card with a similar effect could easily knock the price some, as could it being made a Game Changer. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the future.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!