Following the reveal of the two Lorwyn Eclipsed precons earlier this week, the MTG finance markets have been moving like mad. Missed reprints and easy upgrades have been spiking sharply and showing no signs of stopping.
Curiously, many of the MTG price spikes that we’re now seeing have happened before. Nest of Scarabs has spiked for a second time after not being reprinted in the Blight Curse precon, for example. The same is also happening to Persistent Constrictor, which first saw a price spike almost exactly one year ago.
MTG Persistent Constrictor
Released as part of the Endless Punishment precon from Duskmourn: House of Horror, Persistent Constrictor is a nasty MTG card. For as long as this Snake sits around on the board, it’ll dish out a constant stream of -1/-1 Counters. Thanks to having Persist, getting good value out of Persistent Constrictor isn’t too difficult, even with its high casting cost.
Due to this general utility, Persistent Constrictor already sees play in around 31,000 Commander decks. While its source precon makes up a lot of this, other Commanders like Maha, Its Feathers Night and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons have excellent synergy with it. The same is true for the new Blight Curse precon and both of the deck’s Commander options.
Whether you’re playing Auntie Ool, Cursewitch or The Reaper, King No More, Persistent Constrictor’s -1/-1 Counters are fantastic. That said, since you can’t target your own creatures with Persistent Constrictor, The Reaper does feel like a better fit. When building around this Commander, it’s easy to kill off specific cards, reanimating them on your side of the field.
Thanks to this powerful potential, there has been a sharp uptick in demand for Persistent Constrictor recently. It’s still early days, of course, but around 500 new lists utilizing Persistent Constrictor have popped up, according to EDHREC. Naturally, this has also caused a significant surge in demand, which has pushed the price of Persistent Constrictor up.
The Spike
Following Blight Curse’s reveal on Tuesday, which confirmed Persistent Constrictor wasn’t reprinted, this card started selling like hot cakes. Since then, over 175 near-mint non-foil copies have been sold, putting a serious dent into supply. Now, there are only 12 near-mint non-foil listings left on the market, offering 89 copies total.
Previously, a couple of months back, copies of Persistent Constrictor were selling for around $1.11 on average. Following the sudden surge in demand, however, prices have been pushed up significantly. While the market price is up to $6.02 already, recent sales and new listings are more expensive.
Currently, if you’re after a near-mint non-foil copy of Persistent Constrictor, you’ll have to spend at least $9.99. This marks a clean 800% price spike since recent lows. Thankfully, if you’re in the market for a copy of Persistent Constrictor, there is another option.
Alongside the default variant, which has seen the biggest spike, there are also Extended Art copies. At the moment, prices for these copies are a fair bit cheaper, with near-mint listings starting around $2.80. Notably, there are very few copies available at this price point, however, so these cheaper copies may not last long.
Unfortunately, outside of this cheaper variant, there aren’t any sneaky deals to be found. Worse-condition copies have already been bought out or are being sold for bizarre premiums. That said, while prices are high now, there’s a high chance they won’t stay that way.
The Future
As usual, there’s a lot of short-term potential for Persistent Constrictor. Since MTG players are likely still looking for upgrades to Blight Curse, demand is unlikely to die out overnight. If anything, it may have another spike when the set actually releases on January 23rd. Should this happen, then the current $10 copies may end up looking like a steal in hindsight.
While it is impossible to predict the future with 100% certainty, Persistent Constrictor’s previous spike does provide some key context. When we first covered this card back in January of 2024, it had only spiked from around $1 to $5.19. Following this, the card continued to climb slightly, peaking at $7.72.
After hitting this peak, it didn’t take long for the price of Persistent Constrictor to start tumbling down. By May, the market price was already back under $2, and it continued falling after this until recently. Notably, while this does make Persistent Constrictor seem like a bit of a flash in the pan, this spike is significantly larger than past highs.
With Persistent Constrictor already selling for $10, there’s a non-zero chance that the current price will hold for longer. Given how low the supply is, this is a very real possibility, but nothing is for certain. Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew!