Despite being surprisingly dormant throughout MTG Avatar’s spoiler season, the MTG financial markets have come alive after its release. Curiously, despite Earthbending and Airbending cards being dominant in competitive formats, Commander is all about Firebending. High-power Commanders like Fire Lord Azula and Fire Lord Zuko have fittingly been on a hot streak in this format.
While these cards are leading the charge, there are a few other MTG Avatar legends also moving the market. Ozai, the Phoenix King, for instance, has also been proving popular thanks to his unique ability. Thanks to being interesting to build around, not to mention powerful, this Commander has caused a rather impressive price spike.
MTG Neheb, the Eternal
Unlike many of the hyper-specific, usually spell-doubling-based, price spikes we’ve seen recently, Neheb, the Eternal is more generally useful. If you can deal a bunch of damage to your opponents before your post-combat main phase, you get a bunch of mana. This can easily allow Neheb to create a ton of value, even paying for itself on the turn you play them.
Thanks to this compelling mana generation ability, Neheb, the Eternal has long been a staple in many MTG Commander decks. Typically appearing in aggressive mono-red lists, like Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, Neheb only gets better the more damage you deal. Thankfully, there is no shortage of new cards that fit this archetype, keeping Neheb in demand.
The Kratos, God of War PlayStation MTG card, for instance, has also been very interested in Neheb. Since Kratos encourages opponents to attack, the board should be fairly open, allowing you to deal damage yourself. Much like with Ojer Axonil, this then allows you to create oodles of mana, accelerating your game plan.
While Kratos did bump up demand for Neheb, the Eternal, Ozai, the Phoenix King has been the big driver recently. Not only does this MTG Avatar legend keep Neheb’s mana around long term, but Neheb helps unlock their third ability. With how well these two cards synergize together, it’s surprising they’re only played in 59% of Ozai decks.
Admittedly, while powerful, Neheb, the Eternal isn’t a cheap MTG card. Not only is this card climbing in price, but it also costs five mana. This makes it a mid-game engine at best, which isn’t the best time to be ramping. It can still be useful, of course, and provide tons of value, but it’s no aggressively costed super staple.
The Spike
Speaking of cost, copies of Neheb, the Eternal are now selling for around $6.45 on average. Considering the amount Neheb sees play in Commander, this is a fairly respectable price tag, all things considered. Things didn’t always used to be this way, however, as just one month ago, copies were selling for $1.
Curiously, this Murders at Karlov Manor Commander printing is also the most expensive at the moment. While prices are up across the board, this variant has seen the biggest influence from TCGplayer Direct. With sales peaking at $12.30, the market price figure for this variant has been pulled up rather sharply.
Thankfully, non-foil near-mint copies of Neheb, the Eternal are selling for slightly less than the market price right now. Excluding shipping, since it can be discounted, copies of this variant start at $4.24. Bizarrely, despite this variant having the biggest market price, these are actually the cheapest near-mint copies on the market.
Should you feel like spending more money for whatever reason, the Commander Masters variant is currently one step more expensive. Selling for $5.80, with no option to escape shipping costs, this variant has spiked from $2.70. If that’s not expensive enough for your liking, original Hour of Devestation copies are going for $6.74.
For those who want something a little bit different, there’s also the borderless portrait variant of Neheb from Commander Masters. Currently, near-mint non-foil copies of this variant are going for $7.69. Much like all the other variants, this version has also spiked in the past few weeks, albeit only by a few percent.
The Future
In theory, Neheb, the Eternal has a lot of potential as a generally useful MTG card for red Commander decks. As much as it is somewhat slow, once it gets going, it can easily snowball out of control. Thanks to this, there’s bound to be a steady stream of demand for this card, keeping copies moving.
Should this demand continue, thanks to new synergistic cards and Commanders, there’s a good chance this price spike may stick. At the end of the day, Neheb, the Eternal is hardly the most expensive MTG card ever right now, so that’s not unreasonable. At the same time, however, this card is definitely at risk of being reprinted thanks to its unusual power level.
Despite only being found at mythic rarity, Neheb, the Eternal is hardly a format-warping bomb. Thanks to this, it can be reprinted fairly safely in preconstructed Commander decks, as Murders at Karlov Manor demonstrated. On top of this, it feels like a ripe candidate for a bonus sheet reprint, should the need arise.
Obviously, while Neheb, the Eternal might feel reprintable, there’s nothing to say Wizards will reprint it anytime soon. As always, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in 2026 and beyond. Hopefully, even if this price spike ends up sticking, Neheb won’t end up being prohibitively expensive.
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