March of the Machine Prerelease begins tomorrow! For a long time, MTG Prereleases were simply an occasion where players could try out a new set’s Sealed format, but things have changed in recent times. Wizards of the Coast has expanded the amount of stuff players can expect at Prereleases. Cards immediately become legal for sanctioned play, and we can buy whatever March of the Machine product is available! Before The Brothers’ War Prerelease changes, players needed to wait a week before they could pick up any new product at the set’s official release. Now that players can do all this during Prerelease, many are eagerly starting to purchase some upgrades to the preconstructed March of the Machine EDH decks being released – and it’s affecting the secondary market in a big way!
Here are some of the cards increasing in price in part thanks to the new March of the Machine preconstructed Commander decks!
The Red Terror
The Red Terror has seen a lot of attention in the financial world of MTG throughout 2023. The card tends to find itself enabling a bunch of infinite combos. The last time we saw The Red Terror, it was because of a two-card infinite damage combo involving itself, and All Will Be One. Basically, every time The Red Terror gained a +1/+1 counter, All Will Be One dealt damage. Every time All Will Be One dealt damage, The Red Terror would gain a counter.
Another two-card infinite combo of similar context was, once again, released. The offending card this time around is called Shalai and Hallar. Much like All Will Be One, this creates a feedback loop with The Red Terror causing infinite damage and infinite counters. Whenever a counter is put on The Red Terror, Shalai and Hallar deals a damage to an opponent. This, in turn, will trigger The Red Terror since a red source dealt damage, putting a +1/+1 counter on the creature. Rinse and repeat. This card can be found as a part of the Call For Backup preconstructed deck – which The Red Terror is being used as an upgrade for.
The Red Terror’s price has shot up twice over the card’s existence. The first, obviously, was related to All Will Be One throughout the first two weeks of January. During this time, The Red Terror’s price rose from less than ten cents to $6. After the price came back down, another spike was seen from $3 to a little under $10 as a result of Call for Backup.
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Kinsbaile Cavalier
Kithkin have finally returned with March of the Machine! Ironically, this is not why Kinsbaile Cavalier is rising in price. It is, instead, because it’s a fantastic Knight tribal card!
As many of you may know already, one of the new Commander decks releasing alongside March of the Machine is a Knight tribal deck. Named Calvary Charge, this Esper Knights deck is, perhaps, the most anticipated of the March of the Machine preconstructed decks. Not only does this deck have the highest reprint value, but it also features the return of Eminence, one of the most powerful Commander keywords ever introduced to the game.
As soon as the Eminence Commander for this deck was revealed, many players started speculating on powerful upgrades to the Knight tribal strategy. Some of the cards players speculated on, like Knight Exemplar, ended up getting reprinted in the deck. Kinsbaile Cavalier did not. Granting all attacking Knights Double Strike, Kinsbaile Cavalier has the potential to double your board’s potency the turn it enters the battlefield.
Kinsbaile Cavalier, unfortunately, is a Morningtide card. This means the card was printed during the Lorwyn block – which is rather short-printed. Any interest in cards that only have printings from this era caused the cards to increase violently. Kinsbaile Cavalier also saw a reprint in a Duel Deck, but the supply boost offered by such a reprint is minuscule. In other words, it does not heavily impact the card’s price.
Kinsbaile Cavalier was only worth $4.50 at the beginning of April. Since the contents of Calvary Charge has been revealed, the card has quickly quadrupled in value, nearing $20!
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War Elemental
We won’t talk about War Elemental too much because the reason for this card’s price increase is similar to The Red Terror. This creates the same infinite loops that The Red Terror does, granting infinite damage alongside All Will Be One and Shalai and Hallar.
Unlike The Red Terror, War Elemental has not seen any drops in price between January and now. It has also seen two stages of price increases at the release of each combo piece. The first drove War Elemental up from $1.50 to $4. War Elemental’s current price point is a bit unstable, but it seems to be selling for between $7 and $11 rather consistently, with recent sales suggesting the card’s price increase has not finished yet. Red Elemental only has one (older) printing, so a small amount of interest will go a long way.
Intruder Alarm – Spec
There is little Convoke decks like more than tapping their creatures to cast a Convoke spell – only to untap them and cast them all over again. Intruder Alarm is capable of leveling up a Convoke-themed deck immensely, which is precisely why players are looking at this card as an upgrade to the Divine Convocation Jeskai Convoke deck.
This card can get to absolutely ridiculous levels when combined with effects like Young Pyromancer and Third Path Iconoclast. Every time you cast a non-creature spell, you create a token, which will cause all of your creatures to untap. When combined with noncreature Convoke spells, you can tap to cast your spells, create a token and untap everything with Intruder Alarm. The main Commander included in Divine Convocation draws cards off of Convoke casts, which can create a massive chain reaction, netting a ton of mana in the process.
If you decide to take the Convoke deck in this direction, you actually have access to a secondary Intruder Alarm. Jeskai Ascendancy will play a similar role in a noncreature Convoke strategy.
In terms of price, Intruder Alarm has, more or less, fallen from grace. The card was worth $25 a year ago before falling down to $10. The card is slowly starting to climb back up because of increased interest climbing up to around $12. This isn’t a massive price increase, which is why, at this point, the card is more of a speculation. If anything, Intruder Alarm could prove to be far too powerful for a casual setting, which would likely mean that the card could have less demand than expected.
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