Going into MTG x TMNT, Mutants are all the rage. Thanks to tons of new support from the Turtle Power! Commander precon and the main set, any existing Mutant cards are now seeing a lot of attention. This may seem like a relatively niche creature type in MTG, but due to the Mutant Menace precon from MTG Fallout, there are a surprising number of powerful Mutants to collect. Now, as these cards have become the latest MTG finance trends, Rampaging Yao Guai has spiked significantly in price.
MTG Rampaging Yao Guai
While it may not look like much without a big mana investment, Rampaging Yao Guai has a surprisingly high floor. Even for just three mana, the card will still destroy any Food, Treasure, Mutagen, or other zero-mana artifacts in play, which is quite relevant in today’s Commander environment. With Commanders that have additional synergies with the Bear Mutant, this alone makes playing the card a no-brainer.
Once you can invest some mana into it, Rampaging Yao Guai gets a lot scarier. Blowing up crucial mana rocks while creating a body that opponents can’t ignore, this Bear Mutant quickly becomes the perfect hybrid between threat and removal. This makes the card a slam dunk with Commanders like Ayula, Queen of Bears and Jenova, Ancient Calamity, where Rampaging Yao Guai’s creature types make it even scarier. That said Ygra, Eater of All is a particularly scary Commander for Rampaging Yao Guai, since the Elemental Cat will allow this creature to take out creatures on entry, too.
If that weren’t enough, the +1/+1 counters that Rampaging Yao Guai generates allow stronger synergies between the card and the Turtle Power! precon. While this creature is already seeing play in over 45,000 decks according to EDHREC, Leonardo, the Balance and Michaelangelo, the Heart Partner decks seem like a perfect new home for this Bear Mutant. Heroes in a Half Shell also synergize with the creature, drawing cards and scaling up Rampaging Yao Guai’s body whenever it deals damage.
The Spike
Despite being a surprisingly strong answer to zero-mana artifacts, prior to this spike, Rampaging Yao Guai was surprisingly cheap. The card had been hovering around the $0.50 mark for the past few months but started climbing gradually as TMNT season approached. After the sudden spike in demand for the Mutant Bear, Rampaging Yao Guai’s market average quickly jumped to $3.48, representing a 376% price spike over the course of the last month.
Sadly, when shipping is factored in, finding a near-mint copy for less than the market average is currently impossible. Near-mint extended art copies are available at a similar price, but Surge Foils, understandably, have even higher premiums due to scarcity. If you want the most exclusive copies of Rampaging Yao Guai, you’ll have to spend around $5 for the base Surge Foil variant and $7 the extended art Surge Foil.
Lots of Promise
For players who want to grab a copy of Rampaging Yao Guai on the cheap, waiting a bit might end up doing the trick. Like many should be aware of by now, MTG Commander-related price spikes often end up being flashes in the pan. Once players move on to the newest Commander craze, cards that spike in price from previous trends tend to calm down a bit. While we wouldn’t expect Rampaging Yao Guai to return to its previous $0.50 price point, this does mean there’s a decent chance it will find a medium somewhere, but that might not last for long.
Thanks to its applications, Rampaging Yao Guai has a lot going for it. Even outside of Mutant decks, this card remains an extremely powerful hate piece against a lot of common artifact tokens. While an uptick of Mutant synergies did cause this card to get its current spotlight shone upon it, this could mean that the card remains expensive as players discover Rampaging Yao Guai’s utility.
Adding to this, it appears that the Mutant creature type may be relevant for a surprisingly long time, as well. While not a focus of the set, there will be some Mutants in 2026’s Marvel Superheroes MTG set, potentially reviving Mutant demand once again. If that weren’t enough, there could also be an X-Men-focused set coming sometime in the future.
For all these reasons, Rampaging Yao Guai seems like a decent buy right now, even at its bloated pricepoint. While this becomes less true if its price spike continues, there is a lot going for this Bear Mutant right now.
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