While it hasn’t been out for long, Lorwyn Eclipsed has been a delight on all fronts. From a flavor perspective, this nostalgia-driven set has knocked it out of the park. Not only is the art and whimsy on point, but Wizards even put in extra effort to make it especially special. As if all that wasn’t enough to charm players, this set has also had a huge impact on the competitive scene.
This impact was put on full display at the recent Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed. Despite concerns that Standard would need bans soon, the decks brought to the event were miraculously balanced. With new typal strategies and exciting metabreakers, Standard was cracked right open.
While Lorwyn Eclipsed empowered this revolution, cards from this set aren’t the only ones spiking in price. Most recently, a Spree spell from Outlaws of Thunder Junction has spiked by over 430% in price. It might have gotten off to a very slow start, but Insatiable Avarice is now the real deal in MTG Standard.
MTG Insatiable Avarice
As a Spree spell, Insatiable Avarice naturally has a fair bit of utility. Useable as a tutor, draw spell, or both at once if you have enough mana, this card is a powerful consistency piece. That said, in Standard, this card has always struggled to see play, due to being rather slow.
As a sorcery speed tutor that only puts a card on the top of your library, you’re massively telegraphing your next play. This opens the door for your opponent to mess with your plans, unless you can instantly draw too. While Insatiable Avarice can solve this problem, you’ll have to pay five mana and three life for the luxury.
While this is a pretty damning downside, it hasn’t stopped Insatiable Avarice from seeing play in Commander. According to EDHREC, this card sees play in over 109,000 Commander decks, which is hardly surprising given the format’s love for tutors. For the longest time, this appeared to be Insatiable Avarice’s lot in life, but recently, it turned a corner.
At Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, Insatiable Avarice appeared as a three-of within multiple Dimir Excruciator lists. Here, the card synergised with the deck’s namesake Doomsday Excruciator, which exiles all but six cards from each player’s library. From here, you can easily use Insatiable Avarice, alongside other mill effects, to empty an opponent’s library.
Thanks to using Insatiable Avarice in this unorthodox way, Dimir Excruciator ended up winning the entire Pro Tour. Following this, there has unsurprisingly been a sharp rush of demand for the deck’s core cards. This, in turn, has caused Insatiable Avarice to spike in price dramatically.
The Spike
Due to its steady Commander demand, the price of Insatiable Avarice has been fairly consistent since release. Selling for between $2 and $3 on average, this card has always had low but regular sales. Following its Pro Tour win, however, demand absolutely shot through the roof. In the past few days, over 300 near-mint non-foil copies of Insatiable Avarice have been sold.
Unsurprisingly, this sudden surge in demand has put a massive dent in available supply. At the moment, only 17 near-mint listings remain on TCGplayer. While these do offer 86 copies in total, the prices have already ballooned massively. Now, if you want a near-mint non-foil copy of Insatiable Avarice, it’ll set you back $12.99, not including shipping.
With Insatiable Avarice selling for $2.43 on January 30th, this marks a 434% price spike in just five days. While this is already an impressive spike, this card’s Extended Art variant is even more expensive. Currently, copies of this variant are selling for $23, so MTG players hunting for a cheaper copy are out of luck. Sadly, even if you don’t care about condition or the card being foil, the cheapest copy of Insatiable Avarice is $12.50.
A Short Sharp Spike?
Realistically, the current demand for Insatiable Avarice simply doesn’t seem sustainable. Even if the Dimir Excruciator deck remains popular in Standard, there is a point where players will have all the copies they need. With demand being met at this future point, supply will outstrip demand, causing prices to decline to maintain sales volumes.
While we’ve seen this rise and fall happen countless times, it does take a little while for it to happen. Since Dimir Excruciator is the hot new thing, the current high demand is unlikely to die out overnight. In fact, should this deck remain relevant, we can expect a continued demand increase so long as it’s performing well.
Still, even if demand is more than normal from here on out, Insatiable Avarice is unlikely to maintain its $13 price point forever. Realistically, something closer to $5 or $10 at the top end feels more likely while it’s Standard playable. Should the card ever fall out of the metagame, however, its price will likely crash back down.
Ultimately, while the ebb and flow of the MTG financial markets are well established at this point, it’s impossible to accurately predict the future. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks and months.
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