Since spoilers officially started last week, Secrets of Strixhaven has been wowing us day after day. We’ve already seen tons of fantastic cards, many of which are bound to be future constructed and Commander staples. That’s to say nothing of the new Commander-exclusive cards, which offer fantastic support for multiple archetypes, as always.
Unfortunately, while many of the new cards are great, the precons themselves aren’t perfect out of the box. Each deck can benefit from some upgrades, and that’s certainly true for the Silverquill Influence deck. By leaning into enchanting your opponent’s creatures, this deck can become significantly stronger, making Eye of Nidhogg a fantastic upgrade.
MTG Eye of Nidhogg
Released as part of the Scions & Spellcraft precon for MTG Final Fantasy, Eye of Nidhogg is a pretty versatile enchantment. Technically, you can use it to buff up one of your weaker creatures, turning anything into a consistent threat. Since you can easily get Eye of Nidhogg back, too, you can always be annoying your opponents with a 4/2 Flying Deathtouch threat.
As effective as this strategy can be, realistically, it’s just the tip of the iceberg, since Eye of Nidhogg can enchant any creature. This means that your opponent’s threats and value pieces are all fair game. While Deathtouch does make whatever gets enchanted into a problem, thanks to Goad, it’ll be your opponent’s problem to deal with.
At the very least, this makes Eye of Nidhogg incredibly frustrating for all of your opponents. Either they’re being attacked by something they can’t easily block, or they’re having a key value piece, like their Commander, risked in combat. Unsurprisingly, this gets even better when the rest of your deck cares about enchanting creatures, as the Silverquill Influence precon does.
Alongside this precon’s Commander, Killian Decisive Mentor, Eye of Nidhogg can easily provide a steady stream of card draw. This makes the already consistent enchantment that much more powerful, so it’s no wonder players have been picking it up recently. Even before that, however, Eye of Nidhogg has been a fairly popular card in MTG Commander.
Not only did the Scion’s & Spellcraft precon sell like hotcakes, but Eye of Nidhogg is just great in enchantment-focused decks. Similarly, decks like Xantcha, Sleeper Agent or The Rani, that care about Goading use this card regularly. Curiously, despite this longstanding demand, Eye of Nidhogg has only started to climb in price recently.
The Spike
While Eye of Nidhogg can be used in a variety of MTG Commander decks, it used to be remarkably cheap. Back in early March, this card was selling for just $0.32 on average, although prices did fluctuate somewhat. Recently, however, prices have climbed sharply, thanks in part to a few ridiculously high-priced sales.
In the past few days, at least one copy of Eye of Nidhogg has miraculously sold for $19.50. While this has had a significant impact on the card’s market price, low supply is actually the biggest driver here. Now, there are just 22 near-mint listings for the card on TCGplayer, and prices start at $1.97.
After this low listing, prices jump up dramatically, with the next near-mint copy being priced at $5.24, including shipping. Given the pace of recent sales, it might not be long before this price becomes the new normal. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a cheaper copy of Eye of Nidhogg, you’re out of luck right now.
Thanks to the rush in demand, almost every worst condition example of Eye of Nidhogg has been bought out already. The sole exception is a lightly played extended art variant, which is going for $1.40. After this, even that variant jumps up to $2 and beyond in price.
Unsurprisingly, the surge foil variant of Eye of Nidhogg isn’t much help either. Due to the natural scarcity of this printing, near-mint surge foil copies now start at $14.50. Considering this variant used to sell for just $0.88, it’s technically seen a 1547% price spike in just one month!
The Future
Unfortunately, trying to predict the future of MTG spikes is always difficult, and Eye of Nidhogg doesn’t make things any easier. On the one hand, this card is naturally fairly scarce, thanks to only appearing in a precon and Collector Boosters. On the other hand, however, this might just be a passing fancy, like many Commander-based spikes.
Since Eye of Nidhogg’s home precon is a fantastic fit for it, there hasn’t been an excess of supply to buffer any potential spike. In theory, this could mean that Eye of Nidhogg’s price spike will last, especially since this card has many homes in Commander. That being said, at the end of the day, this is a new precon-based price spike, which is always somewhat risky.
While over 300 sales may have happened in the past week, this demand surely isn’t sustainable. Over time, when new MTG Commander decks come out, there’s a good chance that hype around the Silverquill Influence deck fades away. If, or rather when, this happens, demand for Eye of Nidhogg will drop, likely causing its price to plummet.
Realistically, while Eye of Nidhogg is a long way behind other Scions & Spellcraft cards, like Tataru Taru, it’s not awful. As such, even if the current demand fades away, this card could end up retaining much of its current value. As time goes on, and more copies are slowly bought, it may even end up being decently expensive.
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