The world of MTG finance has slowed down for a bit, but that likely won’t last long. Spider-Man spoilers are just around the corner, which, after players digest the new information, will likely have some impacts on the marketplace. While nothing exciting is being revealed in the meantime, some cards are still seeing price spikes from older causes. They just took a little while for their prices to increase.
Despite Edge of Eternities being on its way out, at least in terms of having the spotlight, the set is still causing cards to spike. While many focused on the fantastic preconstructed Commander decks that the set had to offer, some powerful Commanders from the main set have also caused their fair share of price spikes.
Nuka-Cola Vending Machine
For those trying to build Edge of Eternities’ Ragost, Deft Gastronaught, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is a must-include. This is one of the strongest Food support MTG cards ever printed. The first effect ensures that Nuka-Cola Vending Machine can always create some sort of value, but the second effect of this card is far more interesting. Turning sacrificed Food into Treasure can generate a ton of mana in a focused strategy, but in Ragost Commander decks, it’s even better.
Ragost cares about using his abilities to Fling food across the table. Gaining life can untap Ragost, allowing you to Fling more food each turn. This gets a bit out of hand if you give Ragost Lifelink with something like Basilisk Collar, since he’ll be able to damage the table, untap at the end step, and do it again every turn.
While this is a powerful plan, Flinging four Food per turn rotation isn’t as easy as it sounds. Running out of Food is certainly a problem, but it’s one that Nuka-Cola Vending Machine fixes.
Ragost, Deft Gastronaught has another ability that turns all of your other artifacts into Food, including the Treasure Tokens created by Nuka-Cola Vending Machine. When those Treasures become sacrificed, Nuka Cola Vending Machine will see them as Food thanks to Ragost, creating another replacement.
This Vending Machine ensures that Ragost will never run out of Food to throw at people. Ragost doesn’t even care that the Treasure Tokens enter tapped. You won’t be able to sacrifice the Food for three life or a mana right away, but Ragost’s activated ability doesn’t care whatsoever if the Food is tapped, allowing you to use it immediately.
This powerful combo ensures that you’ll be draining a four-player table for nine life each turn. In my experience, once Ragost pulls this off once, it turns into a kill-on-sight Commander from that point on, at least in Bracket 3 settings. This powerful combo has led to increased demand for the Nuka-Cola Vending Machine’s cheapest variant, resulting in a well-deserved price spike for the card.
The Spike
Nuka-Cola Vending Machine has been spiking pretty steadily over the course of a few months. In terms of demand, there are a few notable spikes. Two occurred before Edge of Eternities’ spoiler season fully kicked off, but the third happened right as Ragost, Deft Gastronaught was officially revealed on July 8th. Many players wanted to build the Lobster Chef Commander, and when it comes to Food support, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is one of the best cards out there.
It has been well known for a while now that any Food deck becomes better with the Nuka-Cola Vending Machine. As a result, this card was never really cheap. Even at the card’s recent lowest point at the end of June, the Vending Machine was still worth $7.59. Since then, the Vending Machine has spiked to a market average of $26.20, representing a 245% price spike. That said, the card seems to be selling for a bit less on average. Finding a near-mint copy for about $24.50 seems perfectly reasonable according to current listings and recent sales.
This brings the traditional nonfoil variant of Nuka-Cola Machine more in line with its other printings. The nonfoil borderless variant of Nuka-Cola Vending Machine goes for about $31 at the time of writing, but is also trending upwards rather quickly. This variant has experienced a $10 price spike since the beginning of August. Traditional Foil variants for this card sell for about $40.
Surge Foils for the traditional variant of Nuka-Cola Vending Machine suffer from sporadic sales. They seem to sell for around the $41 mark most of the time. Finally, the Surge Foil variant for the borderless printing is the clear chase card of the collection, selling for over $80.
Notably, all of the other variants of Nuka-Cola Vending Machine are significantly rarer than the traditional nonfoil one. While that is available in the Science! Fallout Commander Precon, all of the other variants of Nuka-Cola Vending Machine are only available in Fallout Collector Boosters.
The Future
While most Commander-based price spikes tend to revert after players move on to the next big thing, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine might end up staying relatively expensive. Any Food-themed Commander deck will only be better for having this card, meaning that there could be a lot of continued demand for it over time. As far as new Food-theme cards go, MTG Head Designer Mark Rosewater confirmed that a new type of artifact Food is coming in Spider-Man, which could increase interest in creating Food decks. This only stands to increase the potential demand for Nuka-Cola Vending Machine.
Reprinting this card isn’t easy, either. Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is an iconic part of the Fallout IP, making it difficult to reprint outside of another Fallout Universes Beyond set. Wizards of the Coast can do it, but Universes Beyond cards have barely ever been reprinted so far. To date, The List was the only consistent way Universes Beyond cards ever saw a reprinting, and that has been discontinued.
All of this suggests that Nuka-Cola Vending Machine will be a desirable card going forward, but it’s impossible to truly tell the future. My bet is that Nuka-Cola Vending Machine remains expensive for quite some time, but if Wizards of the Coast decides to reprint it, new supply may satiate demand completely. Food could also have a lack of Commander support, meaning players’ interest goes in other directions. Whether or not Nuka-Cola Vending Machine remains expensive is a mystery, but if you want to build the best Food-themed Commander deck you can, this is a necessary addition.