In the past few weeks, the vast majority of MTG price spikes have been thanks to Lorwyn Eclipsed. Even though the TMNT set is on the horizon, the strong typal themes from this beloved set continue to drive demand. While this is what we’ve come to expect from Commander-based price spikes recently, some cards do buck this trend.
Sergeant John Benton, for instance, has seemingly just spiked for absolutely no reason. Jumping up over 3000% in price, this card has seen an immense coordinated buyout in the past few days. While this seems random on the surface, this near-forgotten Doctor Who MTG card actually has serious potential.
MTG Sergeant John Benton
While Sergeant John Benton is a couple of years old at this point, the card sees incredibly little play in Commander. According to EDHREC, this card helms just a little over 4,200 decks, and appears in the 99 of only around 9,000. Predominantly, Sergeant John Benton sees play in Group Hug decks, and it’s very easy to see why.
By providing a decent amount of card draw to both you and an opponent, Sergeant John Benton is a classic Group Hug card. In fact, this card is better than many cards in the archetype, since it doesn’t benefit each opponent. This makes breaking parity as simple as having something like Scrawling Crawler or Alms Collector in play.
While this ease of use already makes Sergeant John Benton good within the Group Hug archetype, he’s actually scary good as a Commander. Since any damage he deals turns into draw, you can fill your deck with cheap pump spells for insane value. With Giant Growth essentially becoming an Ancestral Recall, the constant value you can get is obscene.
Admittedly, giving your opponents cards as well is a downside, but Sergeant John Benton doesn’t really have to worry about that. Since you can pick who you swing at, you can always choose the weakest opponents to give cards to. Since you can easily apply a few pump spells and draw a new hand, it doesn’t take much to snowball out of control.
With this in mind, there’s no denying that Sergeant John Benton can be a compelling option to build around. This, however, doesn’t explain what has been happening to this card’s price recently. Out of nowhere, the price of Sergeant John Benton has absolutely exploded, and for seemingly no reason.
The Spike
At best, a couple of days before the spike happened, Sergeant John Benton did win a bracket four Commander tournament. While notable, this doesn’t really explain how over 700 near-mint copies of the card would be sold a couple of days afterwards. Potentially, this event is what finally made MTG players realize this card’s potential, but it feels more like a preemptive buyout.
Whatever the cause, over 700 sales in just a few days have unsurprisingly had a pretty significant impact on the price. Previously, near-mint non-foil copies of Sergeant John Benton were selling for around $0.22 on average, due to low demand. Now, however, the market price has jumped to $1.29, and sales have peaked at $9.94.
Thankfully, fresh listings for near-mint non-foil copies of Sergeant John Benton are slightly less expensive, albeit not by much. Currently, you’ll have to spend at least $7 to pick up a near-mint copy, although lightly played copies do start at $5.49. Unfortunately, even if you don’t care about condition, supply is low across the board, as there are only 31 listings left in total.
Sadly, while there are three other variants of Sergeant John Benton, none of these are any cheaper at the moment. Out of the trio, the extended art variant is technically the next best option at $10, but that’s hardly ideal. After that, the default frame surge foil starts at $25, while extended art surge foils are $50!
The Future
While every variant of Sergeant John Benton has climbed significantly in price right now, there’s no guarantee they’ll stay there. If this buyout is driven by investors, rather than players, then the current level of demand is almost certainly unsustainable. In theory, this could cause prices to drop so copies keep selling, but investors could easily be in for the long haul, too.
As much as $7 – $10 feels like a lot for a card that used to be so cheap, Sergeant John Benton is arguably deserving of this price. When used aggressively, this card can be remarkably deadly, and that kind of power is always attractive. That said, while it has its moments, many MTG players don’t gel with the Group Hug playstyle.
With this in mind, it’s incredibly difficult to tell where Sergeant John Benton might end up in the long term. Sellers might control the market at the moment, but that’s useless if no one wants to buy what you’re selling. Ultimately, it’ll all depend on how much demand there is, which will only be revealed in the coming weeks and months.
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