Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a quieter 2026, Wizards hasn’t been holding back with spoilers this year. Despite Lorwyn Eclipsed being released not long beforehand, last week, Wizards unveiled a bunch of upcoming content. Debuting nine Commander decks and spoilers that won’t release until April at the earliest, MTG players have already been overloaded with content.
Even though the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set releases first, it’s hard not to get excited about these upcoming cards. The precons and face Commanders for Secrets of Strixhaven, in particular, each look seriously exciting. Thanks to this very early excitement, we’re even starting to see synergistic price spikes two months early.
MTG Nurgle’s Rot
First released back in 2022’s Warhammer 40,000 preconstructed Commander decks, Nurgle’s Rot is a rather unorthodox MTG card. Unlike most Auras, Nurgle’s Rot is part of the niche group that lets you enchant an opponent’s creatures. While this ability can be incredibly powerful, it’s typically more difficult to exploit, since sacrifice synergies aren’t as accessible.
Thanks to this, Nurgle’s Rot typically only sees play within enchantment-focused decks right now. In particular, Eriette of the Charmed Apple is the go-to home for this card, thanks to also largely preventing attacks. Outside of that, this card only really appears alongside the original The Ruinous Powers Commanders, but synergy there is somewhat lacking.
While it’s still early days, it appears Secrets of Strixhaven is giving us an elite new home for Nurgle’s Rot. Despite not specifically caring about enchanting your opponent’s creatures Killian, Decisive Mentor works perfectly with this card. Since you can tap and Goad whatever you enchant, you’re able to guarantee you’ll hit Killian’s attack trigger.
Essentially, this turns Nurgle’s Rot into a delayed cantrip in black, with some extra value sprinkled on top. Since this enchantment returns to your hand when the creature dies, too, you can get tons of value throughout a game. Thanks to this, some MTG players are already eyeing up the card, preemptively purchasing copies and causing the price to spike.
The Spike
Typically, over the past few months, near-mint non-foil copies of Nurgle’s Rot have been selling for around $1.50. While this hardly makes it the most expensive card in MTG, it’s perhaps more than you’d expect from a niche Commander card. Only appearing in around 14,000 decks, according to EDHREC, it’s reasonable to expect that this would be a bargain basement uncommon.
Since Nurgle’s Rot has only been reprinted in the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, however, there’s not a lot of supply. Technically, there is a Surge Foil variant to bolster supply somewhat; however, this doesn’t massively move the needle. As such, it hasn’t taken much for this card’s price to jump dramatically.
In the past two weeks, only a little over 120 near-mint non-foil copies of Nurgle’s Rot have been sold on TCGplayer. This has still been enough to push prices up dramatically, with the market price jumping to $3.65. While this is already a 144% spike in the past month, new listings are even more expensive.
Currently, if you want a near-mint copy of Nurgle’s Rot, you’ll have to spend at least $8.99. Unfortunately, while there are a couple of cheaper copies available, they’re not fantastic alternatives. Thanks to $5 and $6 shipping costs, the cheap lightly played examples that are available aren’t that lucrative.
Unsurprisingly, the Surge Foil variant of Nurgle’s Rot is significantly more expensive, with copies starting at $25. While actual sales have only peaked at $12.69 so far, the lack of supply doesn’t leave players with much choice.
Perplexing Potential
Looking ahead, the future of Nurgle’s Rot is somewhat suspect. While there’s clear synergy between this card and Killian, it’s hard to escape the possibility of a reprint. Admittedly, it would take some work to rename this card and give it new art, but it could still appear in the Silverquill Influence precon.
If this does end up happening, the price of Nurgle’s Rot is bound to crash hard. Not only would new supply flood the market, but anyone who picks up the Silverquill Influence precon would already have the copy they need. While this is a damning possibility, there’s admittedly no guarantee that it’ll happen.
Realistically, while demand is bound to slow down before Secrets of Strixhaven’s release in April, occasional sales feel inevitable. Due to this, there’s a reasonable chance that prices will stay higher than normal until the precon decklists are revealed. Once this happens, Nurgle’s Rot will either fall hard or skyrocket as players try to snag the few remaining copies.
Ultimately, as always, as much as we might try, there’s no predicting the future of MTG. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming months. Given Secrets of Strixhaven doesn’t release until April 24th, there may be longer to wait than usual this time around. In the meantime, however, we’ve still got the TMNT MTG set to look forward to, so we certainly won’t be bored.