Fans of equipment-focused Commander decks have been eating good recently. Not only have there been tons of great equipment in main sets, but we’ve had a few equipment-focused preconstructed decks, too. We’ve even just had the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair, which included insane new equipment support.
Due to this, it’s no wonder that many of the best and most synergistic equipment staples have been spiking in price recently. In particular, upgrades to the Limit Break precon from Magic’s Final Fantasy crossover have been in high demand recently. Nahiri, Forged in Fury, in particular, has spiked a significant amount over the past few months.
Nahiri, Forged in Fury
This March of the Machine: Aftermath card is a great inclusion in any casual Commander equipment deck. More often than not, this will be a 5/4 creature for two mana that offers almost immediate value, provided you have an equipped creature. Unsurprisingly, getting to play equipment for free is a fairly massive upside in an equipment-focused deck.
Nahiri’s real strength, however, lies in the card advantage she offers. If equipment decks in Commander have a weakness, it’s drawing cards. These decks are often too synergistic for their own good, not having room for draw engines. This makes Nahiri, Forged in Fury a real gem, especially in longer games of Commander.
While you do have to put an equipped creature at risk by attacking to get this effect, it’s more than worth it. After all, not only do you get to dig deeper into your deck, but you’ll be able to play equipment for free. While this equipment will come down a little late to be immediately useful, free cards are always incredibly welcome.
Notably, while Nahiri, Forged in Fury is a fantastic upgrade to Limit Break, thanks to its equipment theme, she’s a great Commander on her own. Alongside For Mirrodin! and Living Weapon cards, she can build up a surprisingly robust board of equipped creatures. This then lets you go for wide swings, which will draw you even more cards, getting you even more potentially free cards.
Within Limit Break, she won’t always get as much go-wide value. Still, she’s definitely a good inclusion to the deck’s 99. As mentioned, she’ll usually only cost two mana, since it’s not hard to get four equipment in play. For that price, Nahiri really is a slam dunk.
The Spike
Speaking of price, Nahiri’s price spike has been slower than most of the price spikes we’ve seen recently. As you can see above, Nahiri has been steadily climbing over the past few months as interest has peaked. Unsurprisingly, this increase in interest started to happen around mid-May, when the four Final Fantasy precons were spoiled.
For better or worse, despite being a compelling upgrade to the Limit Break precon, Nahiri, Forged in Fury wasn’t immediately bought out. A surge in sales only led to a nominal spike in price, since there was plenty of supply still available. This is still true today; however, prices have been continually climbing as sales have been consistent, albeit slowing.
Before the reveal of the Limit Break precon, Nahiri, Forged in Fury was selling for around $4.45 on average. Since then, near-mint copies of Nahiri’s have climbed up to $15, and players are consistently buying at this price.
Unfortunately, if you’re in the market for a copy of Nahiri, there aren’t any other printings offering low-cost deals. Nahiri, Forged in Fury has only been printed in March of the Machine: The Aftermath as a mythic, so she’s not exactly common. That said, she does have Extended Art, Showcase, and a couple of foil treatments too.
While the traditional non-foil variant of Nahiri goes for $15, her rarer variants get more expensive, for the most part. The Extended Art variant currently starts at $20, although Etched Foil copies of that printing are selling for $17. The Showcase variant, meanwhile, goes for around $18.50, and the Halo Foil version sells for over $30.
The Future
Since Nahiri, Forged in Fury’s rise in price was a result of a Commander trend, we’d expect that the card will decrease in price after trends move onto themes from new sets. For Nahiri, however, we’re not entirely sure that will happen, at least, not in the same way.
Yes, Nahiri should drop a bit in price once demand lessens for her, but the card is just a strong equipment staple in Commander. The color identity may be restrictive, but almost every equipment deck has access to Boros colors. Now that equipment has stronger tools to play with, Nahiri, Forged in Fury is just a better card overall.
So, now that the equipment has a lot more Commander support, Nahiri may remain a sought-after card for some time. This means that we don’t expect Nahiri, Forged in Fury to drop back to her previous lows.
That said, if Nahiri is reprinted somewhere, it will likely have a massive effect on her price. There are lots of copies of Nahiri available on the secondary market, but as far as printings go, she isn’t the easiest card to find. As such, a reprint would likely decimate the current value Nahiri has and push it past the previous value floor.
This, however, is all speculation, at the end of the day. Try as we might, it’s impossible to truly tell the future. For all we know, Nahiri, Forged in Fury may just end up getting even more expensive. That said, with a serious lack of equipment in Edge of Eternities, I would be surprised if this becomes the case.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com for the best Magic: The Gathering coverage!
