Magic’s recent expansion into different intellectual properties has exploded the momentum of the world’s biggest trading card game. Modern Horizons Two, while wildly successful, has lost its throne to the recent Lord of the Rings expansion. A Universes Beyond product is currently the best-selling product in Magic’s 30-year history! The opportunity for Wizards of the Coast to expand into beloved IPs seems immeasurable.
These cards, of course, can ebb and flow in interest over time. If something new comes out and MTG has crossover cards for it, excited players can pick up their old tools and dive back into an intellectual property that has just been enriched with new content.
That is what appears to have happened with one of the Magic’s first intellectual property crossovers. Back in the day when Universes Beyond didn’t really exist yet, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths introduced a crossover with the fan-favorite Godzilla franchise. These cards introduced skinned variants of other MTG cards released in the set, allowing players to place Godzilla themselves in the Command Zone.
Thanks to the massive hit Godzilla Minus One that was released at the beginning of November, players seem excited to build Godzilla Commander decks of their own. That is what sudden price spikes suggest, at least, with nearly every Godzilla card seeing a range of price spikes, with many unpopular cards more than doubling in price.
Godzilla, Doom Inevitable
Godzilla, Doom Inevitable is not the most expensive of the Godzilla cards, but it is seeing the biggest price spike among them. If the strong reception of the new Godzills Minus One movie is to blame for the price spikes, this makes sense, as this skin of Yidaro, Wandering Monster represents the main character itself.
Players speculating that gameplay is the cause for this sudden increase are definitely mistaken. Yidaro, Wandering Monster has seen no play to speak of competitively for literal years. Unless a new Commander strategy highlighting the turtle has been rising in popularity, people are interested in Godzilla more than Yidaro itself. Only the Godzilla variant of Yidaro is worth over a dollar.
The recent Godzilla mania appears to have Godzilla, Doom Inevitable doubling in price, meaning both its foil and nonfoil variants have surpassed $20. This is 7132% the price of a traditional Yidaro, Wandering Monster’s market value from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths!
The doubling in price for a card that has seen no play over the past month is certainly strange, leading us to believe that MTG players who watched the recent Godzilla movie want to explore the IP on the tabletop.
Read More: Unplayable Secret Lair Commander Cards Bizarrely Spike in Price!
Godzilla, Primeval Champion
If that weren’t strange enough, even uncommon cards related to the towering monstrosity are beginning to spike heavily in price. Back when Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths initially released, after price spikes calmed down, Godzilla, Primeval Champion was only worth about $3. During Kaldheim’s release, this card was briefly only worth 30 cents.
While the card’s price quickly recovered and hovered around $3 to $4 for quite some time, Godzilla, Primeval Champion has suddenly spiked to a market value of $14!
Unlike Yidaro, Godzilla, Primeval Champion does see some select Commander play. Keyword counter strategies have increased in popularity thanks to the introduction of cards like Blue, Loyal Raptor. This makes the ability to put a Trample counter on a creature a lot more valuable than previously.
Otherwise, having the ability to Cycle such a massive creature into the grave can be strong in reanimator strategies.
Either way, the massive increase in price for Godzilla, Primeval Champion is certainly strange, and it doesn’t stop there.
Read More: Intriguing Doctor Who Secret Lair Bonus Cards Revealed!
Ghidorah, King of the Cosmos
Ghidorah, King of the Cosmos, according to TCGplayer, appears to be the most valuable of the Godzilla-skinned cards at the moment. This card is not popular in competitive play, meaning players’ obsession with Ghidorah is strictly from a casual perspective.
Ghidorah began to spike in November but hasn’t seen a huge price spike overall. What it does do, however, is represent the overall trend for the more expensive Godzilla cards increasing in price.
Since the beginning of November, Ghidorah’s nonfoil variant saw a small spike. The nonfoil price of Ghidorah currently sits at $40, and the foil market price currently rests around $48.
These are good representations of the majority of sales for Ghidorah at the moment. That said, there are some outliers selling for as much as $60.
As it stands, Ghidorah is the single most expensive card in all of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, dwarfing the price of cards like The Ozolith that see tons of play in various competitive and non-competitive formats. Of course, Godzilla cards are rarer than normal printings, which can certainly contribute to these prices, but it does show just how interested players are in the Godzilla IP.
Read More: Wizards of the Coast Denies Using AI After Bizarre Controversy
Mothra, Supersonic Queen
Mothra, Supersonic Queen, follows a lot of Gidorah’s trends. Mothra, or Luminous Broodmoth, doesn’t see much play outside of Dual Commander for competitive-ish formats, so most of this price increase is likely a result of Commander and potentially even collectors.
Mothra, Supersonic Queen began to see a price spike back in November. Back then, the card’s foil variant was worth less than the nonfoil one! This unusual relationship, however, has returned to normalcy.
Mothra’s nonfoil variant hasn’t seen a huge spike, but the market value of around $35 appears to represent the card’s value pretty strongly. The foil market price of Mothra, however, has spiked from $28 to $41. There are some variants of this card selling for as much as $65.
Just Godzilla
Almost every Godzilla card is seeing some form of price spike, and very few, if any of them, are particularly powerful game pieces in the world of MTG. The impact of the new Godzilla movie really does seem to have players and collectors interested in grabbing a piece of MTG’s Godzilla crossover for themselves.
Compare this to other older intellectual property crossovers, like Dracula, for example, and the stagnancy of those prices seems to support this further. Even the somewhat recent Renfield movie couldn’t renew interest in these cards meaningfully. That might have had something to do with the movie being kind of terrible though…
If you have some Godzilla MTG cards that you’re not too attached to, it may not be a bad time to sell them. If you’re looking to acquire some of these cards for yourself, but aren’t willing to pay into the sudden price spikes, waiting a couple of months will likely (but not guaranteed) give these cards enough time to calm down.
Either way, it’s neat to see something outside of Magic renew interest in older playing cards. This is not the first time we’ve seen this happen, as cards related to Baldur’s Gate 3 saw a price spike once that game rose in popularity.
Read More: 173 of MTG’s Best Budget Commander Staples!