While prerelease for MTG Star Trek is just three days away, this set has had surprisingly little impact so far. Obviously, none of the cards are playable right now, but typically the MTG financial markets will move as soon as spoilers are unveiled.
This time around, however, the early impact of this set has been negligible, as Reality Fracture continues to move the markets instead. Considering this set was loaded with great Commanders, however, it’s little wonder it’s having such a lasting impact.
MTG Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
As one of Magic’s big bads throughout the ages, Nicol Bolas has a lot of love. While this peaked during War of the Spark, the lead-up to that set created plenty of interesting and iconic cards.
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, for instance, is a pretty powerful MTG planeswalker with one hell of an ultimate. If you can get it to 12 loyalty, you can exile each opponent’s board, barring the lands, leaving them completely open.
Thankfully, this Nicol Bolas isn’t just a good ultimate, as its plus abilities are great at disrupting opponents. Between stealing cards and exiling cards from each opponent’s hands, this card is a real menace to play against.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh even offers built-in removal to justify its casting cost. Technically, the sheer value you get for seven mana here is fantastic, but even then it’s somewhat slow.
Because it’s not a game-ending threat, this Nicol Bolas doesn’t see much play in Commander. Right now, it only appears in around 31,000 Commander decks, and that’s after the surge from Reality Fracture.
In this set, we got both
Jace, Multiverse Architect
Jace, Multiverse Architect
At the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, they may pay {2}. If they don't, creatures they control can't attack Jaces you control this turn.
+1: Draw two cards, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.
−3: Exile another target planeswalker or creature you control. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature or planeswalker card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Jace, Multiverse Architect can be your commander.
and
Tam, the Possibility
Tam, the Possibility
Planeswalker spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
{W}{U}{B}{R}{G}, {T}: Proliferate X times, where X is the number of planeswalker types among planeswalkers you control. (To proliferate, choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
, which work wonders with Nicol Bolas. While Tam is pretty straightforward with cost reduction and a Proliferate effect, using Jace to Polymorph into Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh solves the speed problem.
Thanks to these two Commanders, there are now around 3,500 new Commander decks running this iconic planeswalker. Unsurprisingly, this has had a pretty big impact on the card’s price, as it’s more than tripled in recent months.
A Pricey Planeswalker
While Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh has always had the potential to be powerful, it’s long been fairly affordable. Following a reprint in Double Masters 2022, which pushed prices down, it’s been selling for a few dollars for years.
The default variant, for instance, used to sell for around $3.11 in mid-September, while the Double Masters reprint was just under $4. Now, sadly, both of these price points are long gone, as the Double Masters 2022 reprint is exactly $10.
Currently, the original Hour of Devastation printing is a smidgen more expensive at $10.24. That’s a 229% price increase in about six weeks. While this is pretty impressive, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh has a couple of premium printings, too.
Released as part of the 30th Anniversary Countdown Kit, the Chibi Style Nicol Bolas is currently $12, up from $4. This, however, is nothing compared to the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive promo, which has peaked at $76 recently.
Between all of these, it’s clear that prices for Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh are up across the board. For better or worse, it’s unclear if this current spike will actually last, though, as this Nicol Bolas is far from faultless.
Support or Suffer
As much as Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is powerful, playing it on curve in Commander isn’t really feasible. At this point, you’ll want a game-ending threat with immediate impact; after all, Nicol Bolas can’t do that alone.
Thankfully, with the right support, you can make this possible, especially with any counter doubler like
Doubling Season
Doubling Season
If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
. With this, you can ultimate Nicol Bolas immediately, setting up an easy win.
Failing this, you can make Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh shine with plenty of Proliferate effects, which is what Superfriends specializes in. While this does make Nicol Bolas popular in that archetype, it’s only really good in those decks.
Due to this, it does feel like there’s a ceiling on Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh’s play rate at the moment. This, in turn, could keep a cap on the card’s price, especially since supply isn’t too terrible after the reprint.
While this does make the future of this Nicol Bolas somewhat suspect, nothing in MTG’s future is certain. Hell, that’s certainly true nowadays, as we’ve just seen Magic: The Gathering branded meat sticks become reality.
Ultimately, between new Superfriends support being released and a hypothetical future reprint, the future of Nicol Bolas could go either way. As such, we can only really wait and see what happens as new sets are released throughout 2027 and beyond.
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