The Pro Tour has come and gone, and there is a few elephants in the room following the event. The biggest one? Nadu, Winged Wisdom needs to go. This deck is undeniably a big problem, dominating the entire event. Not only was 26% of the field encompassed by the menace, but it also took down the event in a dominant fashion. Otherwise, some sad news and a disqualification raised concerns from across the community.
While Nadu, Winged Wisdom hogged the spotlight this weekend, it’s not the only card that broke out. A ton of cards that saw unexpected play this weekend have exploded financially. If you want these cards for yourself, you’ll have to pay a pretty penny. Here are some of the cards that exploded in price thanks to the Pro Tour!
Soul Spike
Soul Spike has seen a major price spike (the pun is very intentional) over the weekend thanks to the card’s performance in Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3. Ironically, this Coldsnap rare did not appear in the dominant Nadu Shuko Combo deck, but instead appeared in the Mono Black Necrodominance list.
Thanks to Necrodominance’s ability to draw as many cards as life you want to pay, even though the card imposes a hand limit of five, you’re welcome to draw more than that. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, as well as Soul Spike, encourage Necrodominance players to be greedy. Sheoldred turns your card draw into life gain instead of life loss, and Soul Spike can turn itself plus two extra black cards in your hand into a free drain effect!
Soul Spike also sees play in Mono Black Burn, but don’t be mistaken. The financial spike that this card is experiencing is definitely due to Soul Spike appearing in the Necrodominance lists that performed well at the Pro Tour this weekend.
Thanks to Soul Spike’s unexpected performance, the card has spiked from $5 to $70 between now and the beginning of June. Necrodominance was an early contender in the Modern Horizons 3 metagame, so the card did spike to about $20 before the Pro Tour. Regardless, the Coldsnap rare is now exceedingly expensive.
Notably, only one copy of Soul Spike has ever been printed, which is a big part of why this card is currently so expensive. Foil copies of Soul Spike are now well over $100.
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Suncleanser
Suncleanser is a new piece of sideboard tech that appeared in various Nadu Combo lists at the Pro Tour this weekend, including in the list that Simon Neilson ultimately won the event with.
The function of this card is pretty simple; Suncleanser wants to keep pesky counters off of pesky cards. Players and creatures that may be acquiring counters can get stopped in their tracks by Suncleanser. In this case, Suncleanser completely screws any deck with an Energy package.
Any cards that utilize Energy Counters get completely countered by Suncleanser. Wrath the Skies, Galvanic Discharge, and more will simply fail to do anything. After removing all Energy Counters from a player, Suncleanser keeps that player Energy-free until it dies. This makes for a very powerful Energy-based sideboard card.
Until the Pro Tour, Suncleanser was considered a bulk bin rare. Not even worth a dollar, the card was often forgotten. Now, following the card’s performance this weekend, Suncleanser is commonly going for between $5 and $6.
Like Soul Spike, Suncleanser only has one printing in an MTG set at rare. M19, however, is a lot more recent than Coldsnap, which means that there should be more supply of Suncleanser than the $70 card.
Phlage, Titan of Sun’s Fury
Phlage, Titan of Sun’s Fury is yet another card that has been repetitively overperforming since its release, and the Pro Tour is no exception. While Phlage is, once again, not a part of the Nadu Shuko combo that terrorized the weekend, but instead the win condition of choice for the Jeskai Control archetype that made its way to the top eight.
Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury follows the same template as the powerful Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath and Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger. Not only does this card offer a Lightning Helix on entry, but you can Escape it from your grave for a 6/6 creature that threatens to repetitively Lightning Helix every turn! This functions as removal, reach, and sustenance for The One Ring, the best card advantage engine in the game.
Jeskai Control is now the primary home for Phlage, but the card does see play in other decks, as well. Any Boros midrange deck that continues to run around runs this card. Otherwise, Phlage commonly appears in burn and Storm lists.
Phlage bottomed out around $14 two weeks into June, but has been spiking ever since. Now, the card goes for about $40-45 in nonfoil.
Umbral Mantle
Umbral Mantle is an infinite combo piece released quite some years ago. Able to grant an untap effect to any creature it equips to, this can infinitely pump any creature that can tap to pay for its effect. If there is excess mana in the exchange, this can also lead to infinite mana.
While this card is likely spiking for combo-based reasons, Umbral Mantle’s ability is unlikely the reason for the spike. Instead, it is likely the card’s equip cost that is causing this spike. Equipment with an equip cost of zero is one of the easiest ways to maximize effects on Nadu, Winged Wisdom. No, this card is not seeing Modern play, but it could be seeing Commander play. In Singleton, you can only run one Shuko, after all.
We’ve seen a lot of other cards spike in a similar manner for the same reason. Cards like Sea Kings’ Blessing and Sylvan Paradise from Legends were seeing price spikes solely because they can target all of your creatures for just one mana. Umbral Mantle is likely seeing a spike for a similar reason.
Umbral Mantle has always had some financial value attached, but the card started increasing in price in May. Worth $5 back then, the card has since spiked to $25.
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