Now that the Avatar: The Last Airbender set is out in the wild, it’s no wonder the MTG markets are moving. Some of the set’s cards are already selling for obscene prices, and many mythics are on the rise. On top of this, some of the set’s best Commanders are also causing a few classic cards to spike in price.
Most recently, the immensely powerful Fire Lord Azula has been taking the MTG world by storm. Thanks to spell copying antics, this iconic Avatar villain can create tons of combos out of the Command zone. One such combo uses Snap, a not-so-forgotten instant from way back in Urza’s Saga.
MTG Snap
So long as you have the mana to cast it, Snap is technically a free spell. While the effect of this spell isn’t that revolutionary, untapping two lands can do a lot of work. All you need is a land that taps for more than one mana, and suddenly you’re mana positive. Even without this, getting to bounce something from the board for at worst no cost isn’t to be scoffed at.
Thanks to this high floor of utility, Snap has consistently seen play in Pauper for quite some time. Typically appearing in Mono Blue Faeries decks, this card is a true staple in the format. Whether you need to remove an opponent’s threat or bounce one of your own creatures for whatever reason, Snap works wonders.
Unsurprisingly, this card is also very popular in Commander, especially since there are more high-value utility lands in the format. According to EDHREC, Snap sees play in around 271,000 Commander decks at the moment, which is roughly 7% of all blue-aligned decks. While this is already impressive, this number was bumped up by an additional 4000 recently, thanks to Fire Lord Azula.
Not only can you simply copy Snap to get additional mana positive value, but there’s also the Dualcaster Mage combo line to exploit. Thanks to Azula doubling both Snap and Dualcaster Mage, this loop is mana positive and creates infinite 2/2 Dualcaster Mage tokens. Unsurprisingly, thanks to this combo wincon, both these cards are incredibly popular in Azula decks, leading to sizable market movement.
The Spike
For better or worse, Snap isn’t exactly the cleanest price spike in the history of MTG finance. Some variants of this card have shot up over recent weeks due to Azula demand, but others are surprisingly dormant. This is good news for anyone still looking to pick up this card, as there are a fair few cheaper copies still available.
In terms of the actual spike, it can most clearly be seen on the original variant from Urza’s Saga. Surprisingly, despite the age of this printing, there are still a fair few near-mint copies floating around, which have been selling consistently. Over the past few months, over 250 copies have been sold, bringing the price from $2.29 to $7.67 on average.
Similarly, the Wilds of Eldraine Commander variant has also been spiking in price, albeit only by 158%. Currently, this variant is selling for around $7.07 on average; however, the market price statistic is somewhat misleading. For both the Wilds of Eldraine and Urza’s Saga variant, there are still near-mint copies available for as little as $2.33.
As we often see, TCGplayer Direct is actually the main driver of sales, causing this price spike. Thanks to players rushing to pick up copies for their Commander decks, this feature is often used heavily, resulting in faster-than-usual price spikes. Recently, TCGplayer Direct has pushed peak sale prices up to $12.76 for some variants, and these sales are rather consistent.
Thankfully, while some MTG players may be content to pay a little more, other variants are significantly cheaper. The Dominaria Remastered printing, for instance, isn’t available on TCGplayer Direct, and copies are selling for $2.25. The same is true for the Duel Decks: Mind vs. Might variant, which is going for $2.41.
The Future
Looking ahead, personally, I don’t have the highest hopes for Snap to properly spike in price to an obscene degree. That said, as always, this spike could go either way, as we can’t predict the future.
Realistically, though, Snap has four main printings, including a Secret Liar variant too. Thanks to this, there’s still a good amount of supply floating around the market. There’s also the decent chance this card could be reprinted in the not-so-distant future, although there’s no guarantee of this, of course.
At the moment, it looks like it’d take a lot more movement to make Snap spike beyond where it is. Sadly, this might not happen, as now that Avatar prereleases have come and gone, demand for Azula will likely slow down. Still, while we’re not super optimistic about this card’s future, there’s no denying that this card is a staple.
Between its competitive demand from Pauper, general utility in Commander, and its combo potential, Snap has a lot going for it. We could easily see another Commander option that synergizes with it in the future, pushing the price up again. Whether or not this will happen, however, remains to be seen.
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