For better or worse, it seems that the five precons from Secrets of Strixhaven aren’t made equal. Each deck may have its own unique strategy, but there are clear frontrunners in terms of power and reprint equality. Thanks to this, demand for each of the decks has been a little bit lopsided.
Since it was first announced, we’ve seen the Silverquill Influence deck dominate headlines more than any other. Thanks to its unique strategy revolving around enchanting your opponent’s creatures, it’s no wonder players are gravitating toward it. This, in turn, has caused all manner of synergistic upgrades, like Greater Auramancy, to spike in price in recent weeks.
MTG Greater Auramancy
Originally printed way back in Shadowmoor, Greater Auramancy hardly needs any introduction. If you’ve ever played with, or against, an enchantment-focused deck, this card was almost certainly in the 99. By providing blanket protection for your other enchantments and enchanted creatures, this card is unsurprisingly an auto-include.
Notably, in some decks, Greater Auramancy can actually end up foiling your own plans somewhat. Since Shroud prevents you from targeting your own creatures, it stops you from stacking up enchantments in Voltron builds. Thankfully, this is just one of many forms an enchantment-focused deck can take, so Greater Auramancy still has tons of homes.
Alongside Zur the Enchanter and Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin, Greater Auramancy is a real godsend. The same is true when played with Eriette of the Charmed Apple, who is the most popular home for this enchantment right now. Considering the new Silverquill Precon and Killian, Decisive Mentor use a nearly identical strategy to Eriette, it’s no wonder demand is up.
By revolving around enchanting your opponent’s creatures rather than your own, Shroud’s downsides don’t really matter. Thanks to this, there’s almost no reason not to play Greater Auramancy within this style of deck. Curiously, despite having fantastic potential within the archetype, this card doesn’t feature within every Killian list.
According to EDHREC, only 544 out of the over 2,700 Killian decks are using Greater Auramancy. This might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things; however, it’s still been enough to move the markets.
The Spike
Thanks to being a generally powerful and useful card in Commander, demand for Greater Auramancy is fairly consistent. This can be seen most clearly on the Enchanting Tales reprint of the card, as seen above. In the past three months, over 300 near-mint copies of this variant have been sold, with a sharp uptick following the reveal of the Silverquill Influence deck.
Like many of the recent price spikes we’ve seen, demand surged once we knew this card wasn’t being reprinted. This, in turn, quickly began to push prices up, as supply was drained from the market. While this variant used to sell for around $13.50, copies now start at $26.78, including shipping.
Considering there are only 22 near-mint listings left for this variant on TCGplayer, there’s a good chance prices will continue to increase. In fact, not only have sales for this condition peaked at $30, but that’s the price of the original Shadowmoor variant, too. Similarly spiking from around $13, this classic variant has jumped a bit more in price, with near-mint copies starting at $31.
Should you want to spend even more money to bling out your Commander deck, there are a couple of chase Greater Auramancy printings. At $34, the anime borderless variant from the Enchanting Tales bonus sheet is currently the cheapest of these. After that, you’d have to shell out $70 for a near-mint Judge Promo, or $430 for the confetti foil variant.
A Suspect Staple
As good as Greater Auramancy is, looking at its price history is somewhat puzzling. At its peak, this card was selling for around $80, but it seems extremely unlikely to return to that price. Not only is there more supply thanks to the Enchanting Tales reprint nowadays, but that’s not what caused demand to die.
With the price of Greater Auramancy beginning to fall two years before its eventual reprint, it seems this card simply fell out of favor. As such, it’s hard to think that this latest spike has fantastic long-term prospects. This is especially true since it’s a precon-based price spike, which tends to dip once a new deck is released.
While new precons moving the markets is always a threat, Marvel Super Heroes is bound to have a massive impact. Even if it doesn’t reach the same heights as Final Fantasy, Wizards is going all out for this set. As such, there’s a good chance the set’s four precons will dominate the market once revealed.
For better or worse, while this scenario does feel somewhat likely, it’s hardly guaranteed in the grand scheme of things. Realistically, as much as we might try, we can’t predict the future, especially considering how much MTG has innovated recently. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens to this price spike in the coming months.
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