It’s no secret that the MTG Avatar set has been a hit. Even if it’s not selling as well as Final Fantasy, this set has absolutely fantastic flavor and mechanics. This is a treat for MTG and Avatar fans alike, especially since the set’s cards are actually playable.
So far, Standard, Modern, and even Legacy have seen significant developments thanks to MTG Avatar. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Commander players also have no end of new legends to enjoy. We’ve already seen how Fire Lord Azula and Toph, the First Metalbender have caused price spikes, and they’re not the only ones.
Hei Bai, Forest Guardian
As a five-color Commander from a Universes Beyond set, Hei Bai, Forest Guardian sounds insanely exciting. Recently, however, Wizards of the Coast has been going a bit overboard with five-color Commanders. Due to this, Hei Bai isn’t actually too unique, as the Commander basically builds itself.
If you’re building a Hei Bai, Forest Guardian deck, every Shrine card in MTG basically becomes an auto-include. Thanks to Hei Bai offering access to all five colors, you don’t even need to exercise any restraint here. Just jam every Shrine into your deck, add some generic support, and call it a day.
Thankfully, while the deckbuilding process itself might not be very interesting, Hei Bai, Forest Guardian is still a cool card. While Shrines are obviously a core part of this deck’s game plan, there are also the Spirits Hei Bai creates. In theory, this could allow you to mash two archetypes together to create a deck that offers the best of both worlds.
In reality, judging by Hei Bai’s stats on EDHREC, this card is just Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin 2: Electric Boogaloo. For better or worse, it seems all-out enchantment synergy is the way to go, using cards like Eidolon of Blossoms and Jukai Naturalist. Once again, this is arguably somewhat boring from a deckbuilding perspective, but Hei Bai is still strong.
Thanks to potentially creating an army of Spirit tokens for WUBRG, Hei Bai can easily flood the board and overwhelm opponents. Given Sanctum of Stone Fangs, exists, it’s somewhat debatable whether this ability is needed, but it’s definitely still strong. Thanks to this, and their Universes Beyond appeal, it’s no wonder Hei Bai, Forest Guardian is a popular Commander option.
Hei Bai is so popular, in fact, that they’re already seeing cEDH play and causing some classic Shrines to spike in price.
Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin
Unsurprisingly, if you’re already in five colors, there’s no reason not to play other on-brand five-color Commander options in the 99. Since Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin is one of the best in-class Shrine Typal cards, you’d be foolish not to include it. After all, Go-Shintai can easily create tons of Shrines just sitting on the board, making all your other Shrines stronger.
Beyond just being an auto-include within Hei Bai decks, the new Avatar Shrines have also made Go-Shintai more popular. Since there are only 21 Commander playable Shrine cards, the five new additions from Avatar help fill out the archetype nicely. With Go-Shintai still being the archetype’s best Commander option, it’s no wonder demand is up.
As we often see, the increased demand from Commander players has pushed the price of Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin up. A few months ago, copies of this card were selling for around $4 on TCGplayer. Now, thanks to MTG Avatar, copies are routinely selling for $11. Unfortunately, while there are some worse-condition copies available, this price spike has also happened to the card’s Extended Art variant.
Shrines Go Up
Outside of the two best Shrine Typal Commanders getting more expensive, plenty of Shrines in the 99 have also been climbing. The Eternal Masters variant of Honden of Life’s Web, for instance, has jumped by 160% from $1.11 to $2.89. While this isn’t the most radical price spike, it certainly seems like the archetype is getting more expensive.
Similarly, many of the other Shrine cards first printed in Champions of Kamigawa have also been on the up and up. Honden of Seeing Winds, for instance, has spiked by 83% up to $1.94. Similarly, Honden of Night’s Reach has jumped 210% from $1.04 to $3.23 in the past month. With Honden of Cleansing Fire and Honden of Infinite Rage both also spiking slightly, the demand increase is clear.
Notably, a good amount of the currently rising prices appears to be due to TCGplayer Direct. As MTG players rush to pick up copies, they’ll often utilize this convenience-oriented feature, which can push prices up. This is good news for any deal hunters, as cheaper copies of each of these cards certainly exist.
Looking Ahead
While the clear direction of demand is compelling, there’s no guarantee MTG Shrine cards are a sure thing. Since this archetype is so focused on Typal synergy, looking ahead is surprisingly difficult. Like many price spikes, the future of this archetype could go either way, depending on reprints.
On one hand, if Wizards creates even more new Shrine cards in the future, we could see another wave of demand. While this could push prices to the extreme, if these new cards were in a Commander deck, there’s also the possibility of reprints. Should any of the MTG Shrine cards be reprinted, their prices would likely crash hard.
Ultimately, as always, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, since we can’t predict the future. If we’re being realistic, however, I expect it’ll be a long while until we see more Shrine cards. While beloved, this archetype is still a niche, so it could easily be a few years before new cards arrive.
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