The spoiler season for Reality Fracture may be underway, diverting a lot of attention, but many MTG players are still enjoying The Hobbit. As a Universes Beyond set with fantastic theming, not to mention great cards, this is hardly surprising. Thanks to this, we’re still seeing strong price spikes weeks on from the set’s release, as Forest Bear has just jumped in price.
MTG Forest Bear
Forest Bear is an MTG card that hasn’t been truly relevant in many, many years. As a completely vanilla 2/2 for 2, this card is a long way from being powerful, or even synergistic. Due to this, you might expect that Forest Bears is a dime-a-dozen bit of draft chaff, like its cousin, Grizzly Bear.
Curiously, despite being mechanically identical to its grizzly counterpart, Forest Bear has only been reprinted once. Even with this in mind, it seems laughable that this bear could, let alone has, spiked in price. After all, by today’s standards, this card is truly terrible, and its sole redeeming factor isn’t even that impressive.
Essentially, Forest Bear is a Bear, and that’s the main reason it’s seeing play. The only other contributing factor seems to be the art, as it has a fetching full-art variant. This gives it the edge over other mechanically identical cards like
Balduvian Bears
Balduvian Bears
and
Bear Cub
Bear Cub
, even if they are much cheaper.
When it comes to actually playing Forest Bear,
Beorn the Fierce
Beorn the Fierce
Trample
Other Bears you control get +2/+2.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a trample counter on up to one target creature you control. It becomes a Bear in addition to its other types. Then if you control three or more Bears, draw two cards.
is the real demand driver. Alongside this new Commander, Forest Bear becomes a reasonably costed 4/4, which definitely isn’t awful. Admittedly, it’s still not very good, but since Beorn supports a Bear Typal deck, you play what you can get flavor-wise.
Thanks to this, Forest Bear is now seeing play in around 1,200 Beorn the Fierce decks, according to EDHREC. This, in turn, has caused a rather impressive price spike over the past month.
The Spike
Somewhat unsurprisingly, given its stats and lack of abilities, Forest Bear used to be very cheap. On TCGplayer, back in mid-August, you could have picked up a copy for just $0.85 on average. Since this was right around when The Hobbit was released, however, a huge sales surge around then kickstarted this spike.
After over 170 near-mint copies of the Future Sight frame Mystery Booster 2 variant were sold, prices have increased dramatically. Now, if you want to pick up one of these full art copies, you’ll have to pay $5 at the very least. This marks a 488% price spike in just one month, which is nothing to scoff at.
Notably, even though it only has basic default frame artwork, the original Portal Three Kingdoms printing is even more dear. Because this printing is implicitly rare, prices are especially high, with even lightly played copies starting at $21. Notably, while it has seen some sales, this variant hasn’t spiked in price, as it has always been this expensive.
Sadly, even if you don’t care about card condition, there aren’t really any budget-friendly copies of Forest Bear available. All the worst-condition copies of the Mystery Booster and original printings have already been bought up. Right now, $5 is the cheapest you’ll get this Bear for, which feels nuts given its statline.
The Future
Looking ahead, Forest Bear is a bit of a weird one. There’s no denying that this card is truly awful, yet it still has a place in Bear Typal decks. Since this is a beloved fan-favorite archetype, there’s a good chance that current demand will last longer than usual, too. Even if this doesn’t happen enough, Forest Bear’s rarity could give it the long-term edge over mechanically identical Bears.
As always, when rarity is a factor, reprints are technically an issue for long-term price potential. In theory, new supply could easily satiate the market, causing prices to crash. That said, since the Mystery Booster 2 printing is full art, and the original is especially so, it might not change much. Rather than causing prices to crash across the board, a new reprint could just give us a budget-friendly option.
Admittedly, even with rarity and desirability in mind, Forest Bear is unlikely to be a sure thing forever. Even though it’s a cult classic archetype in Commander, new support is a major demand driver. Due to this, if we’re left waiting ages for any new Bear support cards, prices may naturally dwindle over time. That said, since much cheaper mechanically identical options exist, Forest Bear may be preserved as the chase among 2/2 Bears for 2.
Ultimately, while there are plenty of patterns that could determine Forest Bear’s price, the future remains uncertain. As such, we can only really wait and see what happens going forward in the coming months and beyond.
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