Despite the spoiler season for Spider-Man concluding today, we haven’t seen a lot of secondary market movements as a result of the new cards. While it usually takes a little time for markets to react to new cards, tons of cards were moving in the market as a response to early Final Fantasy spoilers. It seems to have taken a bit longer, but Spider-Man cards are finally starting to have some noticeable movements on the market.
With all the Spider stuff coming out in this set, it makes sense for interest in strong Spider Typal cards to be at an all-time high. We’re finally seeing signs that these cards are moving, starting with perhaps the strongest payoff Spiders have in the game so far.
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant
Until the release of MTG Spider-Man, Shelob, Child of Ungoliant was the de facto Commander for Spider Typal decks. The six-mana 8/8 protects all of your Spiders, and makes blocking them a risky affair. Shelob’s triggered effect encourages Spiders to play a lot of fight spells, ultimately allowing you to steal the best creature-based abilities on the board to use for yourself.
While Shelob remains a strong Spider Typal Commander, it will likely mostly be played in the 99 from now on. Golgari was a great color identity for a Spiders deck before Spider-Man, but the best Spider cards are now spread across all five colors. Stuffing every single Spider-Man into a Shelob deck will be impossible thanks to this, but if you’re trying to build the best Cosmic Spider-Man Commander deck you can, Shelob is an easy inclusion.
Combined with all of Cosmic Spider-Man’s keywords, Shelob will make your Spiders nearly impossible to deal with in combat. The combination of First Strike and Deathtouch is an infamous one, allowing your creatures to kill anything they touch before getting dealt damage themselves. The extra benefit of getting your opponent’s creatures as Food basically ensures that your Spiders won’t be blocked unless your opponent’s life depends on it.
Including Shelob in a Spiders-matter deck is a no-brainer. The added benefit of getting an extra keyword that Cosmic Spider-Man doesn’t already provide is just the icing on the cake. The color identity may harm its potential to be a Commander, but Shelob remains a powerful card in the 99 of any Spider-Man Commander deck that can run it.
The Spike
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant, initially saw a massive demand increase in mid-late July. This lines up with the official First Look for MTG Spider-Man that occurred on July 25th. At this point, it was clear just how many different variants of Spider-Man we would be getting in this set, and with that realization, the desire for Spiders Matters cards became serious.
Originally being worth only $0.32 in mid-July, Shelob has since spiked to about a market average of about $1.50, representing a 369% price spike. The reveal of Cosmic Spider-Man a few days ago has caused a notable uptick in demand, as well. While near mint cards didn’t see a massive demand spike, as shown above, the card is selling more copies across all variants and conditions.
Notably, thanks to The Lord of the Rings having multiple product releases, cards in the set have tons of variants all worth different amounts of cash. At the time of writing, the traditional variant is not only the cheapest copy, but has a massive 181 listings still available. Extended Art Shelobs, on the other hand, only have 73 listings available, and sell for between $1.70 and $4 in nonfoil. The going price for the traditional foiling of this variant is about $9, while Surge Foils are surprisingly a little bit cheaper.
The most expensive variant of Shelob is the Scroll version, exclusively available in the Special Edition Lord of the Rings Collector Boosters that received an infamously small print run. These retail for between $10 and $15 for their nonfoil variants, and a whopping $40 for their foil versions.
A Bizarre Future Ahead
Spikes like Shelob that are caused by new MTG cards that are still in preorder season are a bit unpredictable. Players are already rushing to grab their copies to play in Spider-Man Commander decks upon set release, and sometimes, everyone who wants copies of Shelob grabs them before Spider-Man releases. Other times, demand for these cards persists for quite some time.
Personally, I think Shelob’s demand will stay consistent for the next month or two. There will be a subset of MTG Spider-Man fans who are unlikely to be plugged into everything that’s happening in the set’s spoiler season and, as they see the cards hit the table, Shelob, Child of Ungoliant will be a very obvious, and easy to recommend, addition to a Spiders matter Commander deck. As a result, I would expect that the card will see demand for as long as players are building Spider-Man Commander decks.
Whatever happens with Shelob’s future, the card remains one of the best Spiders matters payoffs in the game. If you’re building a Spider-Man Commander that can run Shelob, we would recommend grabbing it as soon as possible. While we can’t predict the future, there’s certainly potential for this card to get more expensive.
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