As usual, the reveal of the latest precons caused quite a stir in the MTG financial markets. While both decks look like tons of fun with deeply synergistic new cards, these decks aren’t entirely perfect. Some powerful thematic cards weren’t reprinted, for instance, turning them into compelling upgrades for the decks. This, in turn, has caused some of these cards to spike in price as players rush to pick up copies.
MTG Flamekin Harbinger
Originally released way back in 2007’s Lorwyn, now some 19 years ago, Flamekin Harbinger is a staple in Elemental Typal decks. For one mana, this card is an Elemental tutor on a stick, which is hugely valuable in the archetype. Notably, since Flamekin Harbinger only specifies “Elemental card” you can find noncreature Kindred spells like the new Ashling’s Command.
Thanks to this power as a cheap tutor, Flamekin Harbinger is, unsurprisingly, an auto-include within most Elemental Typal decks. Currently, this creature has a 69% play rate within Horde of Notions, and is included within around 10,800 decks total. While this is already a fairly impressive number, it’s steadily climbing thanks to Lorwyn Eclipsed.
No matter the Commander you’re building around, Flamekin Harbinger is an easy upgrade to the Dance of the Elements precon. Both Ashling, the Limitless and Mass of Mysteries work great with Flamekin Harbinger, but Ashling definitely takes the cake. Thanks to her first ability, which is getting an errata, any Elemental permanent you tutor up can be Evoked for four mana.
Thanks to this synergy, Flamekin Harbinger is already in 62% of the Ashling, the Limitless decks on EDHREC. Considering it’s only been three days since Ashling was officially revealed, this could lead to a healthy demand spike. We’re already seeing this on TCGplayer, in fact, as sales have picked up dramatically following the precon reveal.
The Spike
Despite seeing the least sales of any variant, the Planechase reprint is the version of Flamekin Harbinger spiking the most. This is thanks to the variant’s implicit rarity, being from a set with a rather low print run. Despite this status, this variant of Flamekin Harbinger was also the cheapest, prior to this price spike.
Back in December, near-mint non-foil Planechase copies of Flamekin Harbinger were selling for around $0.82 on average. Following Ashling being leaked and later officially revealed, however, prices have surged up to $2.99. While this is only a 264% price spike so far, the low supply on this variant may keep it climbing.
Unfortunately, if you’re in the market for a copy of Flamekin Harbinger, then there’s no escaping the price spike. With 170 copies of the original Lorwyn variant selling in the past month, supply is low across the board. Technically, near-mint prices start at $1.25; however, including shipping pushes that up to $3.24.
Despite only seeing 58 sales in the past month, the foil-only reprint from The List has also spiked in price. Climbing from lows of $1.12 now up to $2.77, including shipping, it’s clear that every variant of Flamekin Harbinger has been spiking. Even the card’s Secret Lair variant has jumped in price from $4.33 to $12.31.
The Future
Looking ahead, it seems like Flamekin Harbinger has tons of potential. It’s still a cheap card, only being worth around $3, after all, and demand could easily continue. Should this happen, the few remaining copies on the market could easily be bought out, pushing the price much higher.
Notably, if this does end up happening, it wouldn’t be the first time that Flamekin Harbinger has spiked in price. A little while after the release of Modern Horizons 3, this card’s price shot all the way up to $15. While impressive, this spike didn’t last forever, falling to below $5 in just one year.
Potentially, we could be able to see the same thing happen here again, but there’s no guarantee of this. While there’s a lot of love for Lorwyn Eclipsed, demand for the Dance of the Elements deck and this specific upgrade is unknown. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks and months.
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