Yesterday, the first of four Commander precons for MTG Star Trek was officially revealed. Featuring tons of new artifact-focused support, the We Are The Borg deck definitely didn’t disappoint. Despite being rather impressive, this new precon hasn’t caused a new tidal wave of price spikes overnight.
Instead, we’re still seeing the ripples from Reality Fracture wash over the secondary MTG markets. In particular, one of the set’s best Commanders, Vraska, Soul of Stone, is causing Roar of Resistance to rise. As a uniquely fascinating finisher for a range of Commanders, this enchantment could potentially go the distance.
MTG Roar of Resistance
Released as part of the Rebellion Rising precon from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, Roar of Resistance is a very solid enchantment. While it’s not as cheap as
Mass Hysteria
Mass Hysteria
All creatures have haste.
and only hits tokens, unlike
Samut, Hazoret’s Champion
Samut, Hazoret’s Champion
Creatures you control have haste.
, it’s still rather useful. Go-wide decks will typically flood the board with tokens, after all, so this card certainly has its uses.
Speaking of going wide, Roar of Resistance can also be a pretty effective finisher when enough bodies on the board. You’ll have to pay 2 each time, but a +2/+0 buff isn’t bad at all and could easily close out a game. Most of the time, you’ll want to build around this yourself; however, Roar of Resistance has a party trick.
In a fun twist, Roar of Resistance doesn’t only care about your creatures attacking. So long as any creature is attacking an opponent or planeswalker, you can pay to activate this enchantment. If you have mana available to use, this completely changes the combat landscape, making otherwise easy blocks potentially dangerous.
Thanks to this political edge, Roar of Resistance currently sees play in around 28,000 Commander decks, according to EDHREC. Notably, this number has seen a significant boost thanks to its synergy with Vraska, Soul of Stone. Not only can this Vraska easily go wide to support a Roar of Resistance finish, but Haste is a big deal, too.
If nothing else, giving Vraska’s Sculpture tokens Haste will allow you to tap and sacrifice them instantly. This not only lets you recoup some of your casting costs, but it also enables an infinite combo with
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sensei’s Divining Top
{1}: Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
{T}: Draw a card, then put this artifact on top of its owner's library.
. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that Roar of Resistance is in 39% of all Vraska, Soul of Stone decks right now.
A Steady Spike
While Vraska has caused a notable uptick in Roar of Resistance play, creating over 2,750 new decks, this enchantment used to be fairly cheap. In mid-September, before Vraska was revealed, you could pick up copies of Roar of Resistance for under $2. At this price, this enchantment was a total steal; however, prices have more than doubled since then.
Currently, if you want to pick up a near-mint copy of Roar of Resistance, it’ll set you back $4.99. Notably, there aren’t many copies available at this price point, and prices quickly jump to $6 and beyond. This may mean the price spike continues in the coming days, especially since higher sales have already pushed the market average to $6.33.
Thankfully, while default frame near-mint copies are in short supply, there’s also the extended art variant. Admittedly, supply isn’t amazing here either, with only 16 near-mint listings, but these currently start at just $4.92. While this is still rather pricey, you can pick up worse-condition copies for a strong saving.
At the moment, the best budget option for a copy of Roar of Resistance is a lightly played extended art copy. Starting at $2.68, this condition is definitely a solid pickup right now; however, supply has been selling rather quickly. As such, you might not want to wait around if you’re interested in picking this card up.
A Suspect Staple
Looking ahead, there’s no denying that Roar of Resistance is an interesting MTG card. Its ability to turn combat on its head has tons of applications, and clearly there are some strong synergies, too. Still, it’s hard to tell where this enchantment will go long term, because while political effects like this are fun, they’re not for everyone.
On top of that, there’s always a non-zero chance Roar of Resistance could be reprinted at some point. Technically, given the taglines for the deck are so combat-focused, it could even be in the Klingon Fury Commander precon. This deck will be revealed on October 28th, so it’ll be worth watching to see what happens.
Even if Roar of Resistance doesn’t get reprinted, this card is by no means a sleeper hit that’ll explode in price. Given the current demand trend, a short-term price rise wouldn’t be surprising, but all bets are off long-term. Ultimately, as usual, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, as the MTG market can easily shift when new sets get released.
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