At long last, the surprising short spoiler season for Lorwyn Eclipsed begins today. Given that the set was previously delayed, pushing it into 2026, this has certainly been a long time coming. Now that this set is almost in our hands, it’s no wonder that many MTG players are seriously excited for what’s in store.
Thanks to early spoilers and a few leaks, MTG players have already been preparing for this set’s release. Jumping aboard the Blight bandwagon, we’ve recently seen a fair few -1/-1 Counter support cards spiking in price. Even with the looming threat of potential reprints, cards like Nest of Scarabs are still on the up and up.
MTG Nest of Scarabs
Released in 2017’s Amonkhet, Nest of Scarabs looks like the perfect upgrade to any Blight-themed deck. In theory, this includes the soon-to-be-revealed Blight Curse precon, which is expected to go all-in on the mechanic.
By creating a swarm of 1/1 Insect Tokens, so long as you’re churning out -1/-1 Counters, Nest of Scarabs solves Blight’s biggest problem. Since you can’t choose where the -1/-1 Counters get placed, opponents can easily minimize Blight’s effectiveness. Since Nest of Scarabs guarantees Insects, no matter where a -1/-1 Counter gets placed, however, it’s a constant value machine.
While this synergy is already pretty powerful, there are also some infinite combos using Nest of Scarabs. Simply pairing this card up with Blowfly Infestation, for example, will let you kill off all the tokens Nest of Scarabs creates. This will get you infinite enters and leaves the battlefield triggers, enabling wincons like Impact Tremors.
As if one infinite combo wasn’t enough, there are also infinite combo lines with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. Alongside Nest of Scarabs, Blood Artist, and another creature, you can keep using Yawgmoth’s ability for infinite card draw, infinite -1/-1 counters, and infinite damage to your opponents.
Thanks to these combo lines, Nest of Scarabs is already a very useful MTG card, and Lorwyn Eclipsed should push that even further. With Blight being a major mechanic, there’s bound to be some additional synergies unlocked. Hell, if Wizards prints a card that Blights whenever a creature enters, then we’ll get another Nest of Scarabs infinite! Even without this, there’s more than enough synergy to be interested in the card.
The Spike
While there are a fair few synergies and combos using Nest of Scarabs, it has long been a cheap MTG card. Winding the clocks back a few months, copies of this enchantment were routinely selling for around $0.45. This low price point isn’t too surprising, considering -1/-1 have long been an unpopular and not very supported archetype.
With Lorwyn Eclipsed on the very near horizon, however, this archetype has been given a new lease on life. Unsurprisingly, this has pushed up demand, and the value of MTG cards like Nest of Scarabs. In the past few months, over 500 near-mint copies of this card have been sold, mostly after High Perfect Morcant’s reveal.
Following this Lorwyn Eclipsed story spoiler, the price of Nest of Scarabs has steadily been climbing. While the market price is currently hovering around $1.30, near-mint listings typically cost $1.81 on average. Thankfully, Nest of Scarabs is still a cheap MTG card in the grand scheme of MTG, but it’s still seen a 302% price spike.
Notably, while there are still 47 near-mint listings for Nest of Scarabs, offering 190 copies, supply is somewhat limited. To date, Nest of Scarabs hasn’t seen any reprints, and there aren’t any alternative art treatments. At best, there are a few foil copies, but this variant is already going for around $10 now.
Suspect Opportunity
At the moment, things really could go either way for Nest of Scarabs. While this card could easily be a compelling upgrade to the Blight Curse precon, it could easily be reprinted there. Should this happen, demand for this card is bound to plummet, since the precon will easily provide needed copies.
If this card doesn’t get reprinted, however, then, theoretically, Nest of Scarabs could spike even harder. $1.81 is still fairly cheap, and low supply could push things up to $5 or even $10. That said, this will depend on Nest of Scarabs actually being a good upgrade to the precon, which is currently unclear.
Even with undeniable -1/-1 Counter synergy, the Blight Curse precon could be good enough that there aren’t many slots to cut. If this is the case, other cards, like Crumbling Ashes, may take up the limited cut slots, assuming it’s not also reprinted. Ultimately, we won’t know for sure until the Blight Curse precon gets revealed in its entirety.
Thankfully, we don’t have to wait long for Wizards to reveal this deck. With the Lorwyn Eclipsed precons being revealed today and tomorrow, we’ll soon know what reprints we are and aren’t getting. Considering the hype that we’ve already seen, don’t be surprised if these deck reveals cause some massive price spikes.
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