Despite being Magic’s first big Marvel crossover, the Spider Man MTG set has been a bit of a disaster. Between Through the Omenpaths, the new Pick-Two Draft format, and scalping, this set has been plagued by problems. Due to this, it’s little surprise the set hasn’t had the impact on the MTG financial markets that many were expecting.
While the set does have a few compelling Commander options, the vast majority are self-contained or support existing archetypes. It’s only really Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer who has carved out their own unique niche, resulting in a fair few price spikes. While the TMNT MTG set did briefly steal the spotlight, Anti-Venom continues to perform admirably.
Pariah’s Shield
Ever since Anti-Venom was first revealed, way back in late June, it was clear that the card has synergy with Pariah’s Shield. Being able to redirect damage going toward your face to a creature instead is occasionally useful but rarely broken. Thankfully, much like Brash Taunter, Anti-Venom is one of the cards that absolutely breaks this ability.
By redirecting damage to Anti-Venom, Pariah’s Shield allows you to quickly accelerate the card’s growth. Getting to keep yourself protected while doing this is the icing on the cake, which makes this card a no-brainer. Thanks to this, it’s no wonder that Pariah’s Shield is already being played in 83% of all Anti-Venom Commander decks.
While this synergy and high play percentage have obviously increased demand dramatically, Pariah’s Shield definitely isn’t faultless. In fact, this card is just a much more expensive version of Pariah. Not only does it cost more mana, but it even has an equip cost that matches Pariah’s entire cost. As if that weren’t bad enough, this card is literally more expensive too, as copies of Pariah are available for $0.50.
Despite being more costly in every aspect, it’s still worth running Pariah’s Shield in an Anti-Venom deck. For starters, redundancy is always important in Commander since it’s a singleton format, and Pariah’s Shield provides that in droves. Not only is it a second Pariah effect, but as an artifact equipment, it will stick around post removal. This allows you to keep attaching it to Anti-Venom, provided it too doesn’t get targeted by dedicated removal.
The Spike
Following the reveal of Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer on July 25th, there’s been a clear increase in demand for Pariah’s Shield. This can be seen across all variants for the card, but it’s clearest on the Ravnica Remastered printing, as seen above. Over the past few months, this variant has seen multiple spikes around the Anti-Venom’s official reveal and launch.
As expected, with demand ramping up, sellers have steadily capitalized on the declining supply by increasing prices. Throughout September, prices crept up from around $1.20 to $2, and they haven’t stopped since then. Currently, prices for a near-mint Pariah’s Shield from Ravnica Remastered start at $3.
Thankfully, if you’re in the market for a bargain, the Retro Frame variant of Pariah’s Shield from Ravnica Remastered is significantly cheaper. Near-mint copies of this variant are widely available for $1, although that might change soon. In the past few days, over 100 copies of this variant have been sold, so there’s potentially a buyout in progress.
On the other end of the spectrum, the reprint from The List is currently the most expensive on TCGplayer. With a market price of $5.76, this variant has spiked 470% in the past three months. Notably, listings for this variant start at $3, and while prices quickly increase after that, a clear discrepancy remains.
As usual, TCGplayer Direct appears to be the cause of this unusual price disparity. In recent weeks, copies of Pariah’s Shield have sold for as much as $20, although most TCGplayer Direct copies aren’t that high. Still, with these extra convenient copies going for $8.45, it’s no wonder the market price is up.
The Future
Typically, we’d be pretty pessimistic about the price spike that Pariah’s Shield is currently seeing, for good reason. While it’s useful now and has synergy with Anti-Venom, this is not a good MTG card. Outside of highly-focused decks, this card doesn’t see a great deal of Commander play, so it shouldn’t be that expensive.
With this in mind, usually we’d say that Pariah’s Shield is bound to crash once MTG players have their fill. Once the hype around Anti-Venom dies out, then this card’s price will surely fall. While this is worth keeping in mind somewhat, this trajectory is by no means a sure thing.
For starters, the price spike to Pariah’s Shield has been fairly slow and steady, indicating players are leading the charge. This will likely mean that copies are slower to return to the market than usual, keeping prices at their current level. On top of this, prices have hardly been pushed to the extreme, so it’s unlikely they’ll be turning players away yet.
Arguably more important than these factors is the fact that we’re not getting any new precons in 2025. These tend to be the major MTG market movers, so without them, Anti-Venom may end up retaining its current popularity. That said, this is all speculative at the moment, as there’s no telling what the future will hold. Ultimately, as always, we’ll just have to wait and see.
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