Earlier this week, we wrote an article discussing Leyline Dowser. The bizarre two-mana artifact looks like a great card advantage engine for spellslinger decks in Commander. Stella, Wild Card, the Commander of the Quick Draw deck, where this card is found, has some absolutely disgusting synergies with the card. Thanks to her ability to untap, Leyline Dowser can mill a ton of cards and potentially fetch a ton of instants and sorceries.
As many players sometimes forget, cards printed for Commander are also legal in Legacy and Vintage. These cards can also have a surprising impact on Magic’s Eternal formats.
Take Creative Technique, for example. This card literally created an entire archetype that can win the game as early as turn three. This is, to be fair, slow-ish for the format, but Creative Technique does a great job at battling Force of Will, which gives this deck a lot of game.
The new Commander artifact Leyline Dowser is seeing play in Legacy, and players have taken notice. As a result, the card has seen a massive price spike. Let’s take a look.
Leyline Dowser
Leyline Dowser synergizes quite well with cards that can stack the top of your deck. In the case of Legacy, Dowser looks quite strong when used with Brainstorm and Ponder. This ensures that an instant or sorcery is placed at the top of your deck, allowing Leyline Dowser to effectively draw that card for one mana. Alternatively, Leyline Dowser can be used to get rid of cards you may not want to draw, turning them into fodder for Delve payoffs.
Since we last wrote about the Leyline Dowser, it has continued to see experimentation in various Delver of Secrets variants. There doesn’t really seem to be a consensus on whether the card is good or not, how many copies of it are supposed to be run, or even where they are supposed to be run. Notably, the card has not had any extremely strong results but has continued to put up relevant performances.
Either way, Leyline Dowser has seen an absurd price spike thanks to new demand. Near the end of April, this card had a market average as low as 16 cents. No one had any interest in utilizing Leyline Dowser whatsoever. Now that Legacy players are starting to pay attention to the card, Leyline Dowser is selling for as much as $5 on TCGplayer, and is being listed for even higher prices. This marks an absolutely absurd price spike from the nadir of TCGplayer’s market value near the end of April.
Dandan
It seems as though Dandan is on the rise once again. The subset of cards affected by Dandan tends to go through regular spikes and lows as players get more excited about the sub-format created by it.
To be clear, Dandan is the poster child of a sort of MTG side game named after the card. This format has two players draw from one deck of cards. The only creature in the entire format is Dandan, which creates some really interesting interactions. The format is rather slow and requires a lot of thinking. It’s a great exercise in some of the finer interactions that Magic has to offer and, while difficult, is incredibly enjoyable. I highly recommend you give it a try for yourselves, especially if you love navigating complicated control mirrors.
Dandan’s initial rise into mainstream MTG seemed to take place after popular Magic YouTuber Rhystic Studies featured it. After highlighting the uniqueness and complexity of the format, many MTG players raced to build the deck for themselves.
Now, Dandan is seeing another price spike. Rising from under a dollar a few weeks ago, it’s tough to find a Dandan for under $8 right now. That said, sales do suggest that there are some underpriced items that appear on the market occasionally.
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Ancient Cornucopia
Ancient Cornucopia is yet another card that we discussed previously that is now seeing a larger price spike. Initially made fun of for being an absolutely terrible Mythic Rare appearing in The Big Score, it turns out Ancient Cornucopia is much better than players give it credit for. Sure, a mana rock that gains life isn’t a big deal, but if you’re consistently casting four or five colored spells, the life gain provided by Ancient Cornucopia is much better than initially expected. This can help stabilize slower strategies against faster ones.
Pioneer and Standard both happen to want to resolve four and five-colored spells. In Standard, the survivability that Ancient Cornucopia provides seems to outclass Topiary Stomper. The life gain between multiple copies of this card can also stack.
In Pioneer, Niv-to-Light is seeing a ton of play thanks to various metagame changes. Resolving an Omnath, Locus of Creation with one of these in play can instantly gain eight points of life! Niv-Mizzet Reborn also provides a gigantic life cushion with Ancient Cornucopia. Between that and a fresh selection of cards, you’re ready to stabilize the game.
Ancient Cornucopia’s cheapest variant is now up to $10 and are beginning to stablize.
Did You Buy In?
We highlighted Leyline Dowser when multiple copies were still available for 50 cents. Since the stakes were so low, buying them when they were low wouldn’t have cost much, but it certainly looked like prices were going to go up for the card. If you read that article and made the decision to pick some up, congrats! You saved some money.
Obvious price spikes like these don’t come by too often, and knowing the signs of a card rising in interest can save you some money in the long run.
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