No matter what archetype you’re playing in Commander, at some point, you’ll need some card draw. Realistically, even if you’ve got godly luck when topdecking, one card per turn usually isn’t enough. Thanks to this, pretty much every single Commander deck will have a few spells that draw cards, ideally on the cheap, too.
While Stinging Study isn’t exactly the cheapest draw spell in MTG, it’s definitely a capable card. With this in mind, it’s little wonder that its price has been climbing dramatically over the past few months. Ever since a new elder dragon was leaked for Secrets of Strixhaven, demand for this card has been on the up and up.
MTG Stinging Study
In an ideal world, Stinging Study can draw you twelve cards for just five mana. While you do have to pay 12 life for the privilege of doing this, it’s technically possible with Iname as One. Thankfully, while Iname is pretty meh as a Commander in MTG, the same isn’t true for the new Witherbloom, the Balancer.
Not only is Witherbloom one of the best new Commanders from Secrets of Strixhaven, but they’re seriously expensive, too. At eight mana and $15, this is true in every sense of the word; however, their cost reduction ability helps with the former. Realistically, you’ll almost never pay full price for this card, but that doesn’t matter for Stinging Study.
As if drawing eight cards with Stinging Study wasn’t exciting enough, it’ll also be affected by Witherbloom’s cost reduction. Ideally, this can turn it into a one mana instant that draws eight cards for eight life. While any deck would kill for a draw spell like this, Witherbloom’s cost reduction should let you go through those cards very quickly.
Thanks to this fantastic synergy, Witherbloom, the Balancer has quickly become the most popular place to play Stinging Study. According to EDHREC, Stinging Study appears in around 4,250 Witherbloom lists, so far. Considering the next most popular home is The Ur-Dragon at just 1,400 decks, it’s no wonder prices are up.
The Spike
Curiously, despite EDHREC indicating that demand is up dramatically right now, sales have been surprisingly low. On TCGplayer, there have only been 500 near-mint copies of Stinging Study sold in the past three months, across both variants. While this is well off the card’s indicated play rate, somewhat unsurprisingly, it has still pushed prices up significantly.
Thanks to seeing play in around 39,000 decks before Witherbloom came along, Stinging Study has always been somewhat expensive. A few months ago, for instance, near-mint copies of this card were routinely selling for around $5.87 on average. For the most part, this price tag has been fairly consistent, but that changed after Secrets of Strixhaven prerelease events started.
As soon as Witherbloom, the Balancer became legal in Commander, the price of Stinging Study started to climb. Now, the market price for this card has more than tripled, and fresh near-mint listings are even more dear. Currently, if you’re in the market for a copy of Stinging Study, it’ll cost you at least $20.36.
Curiously, the extended art variant of Stinging Study is actually slightly cheaper right now, although not by much. With near-mint listings starting at $20, you’ll only be saving a few pennies at best. Sadly, even if you don’t care about the condition of your cards, this is the cheapest you’ll find Stinging Study for right now.
A Reasonable Reprint?
Should you not want to spend $20 on a copy of Stinging Study right now, you can spend $30 on it instead. At the moment, Stinging Study is one of the five cards contained within the recently released Mahō Gakuin Seishun Hakusho Secret Lair drop. Should you like the new art on this variant, then it could be a steal; however, the drop admittedly isn’t that exciting.
Even with Stinging Study propping up the drop’s value, the rest of this Secret Lair is only worth around $6. While this already makes buying it dubious from a value perspective, this reprint could also knock the card’s price somewhat. Currently, it’s unclear how much, if at all, this might happen, but it’s definitely something to watch out for.
Realistically, even if this Secret Lair drop doesn’t sell out instantly, it’s unlikely to introduce a ton of new supply to the market. As such, the current price point for Stinging Study could easily hold for quite some time. After all, even after the hype around Witherbloom dies down, this card will still be great in tons of black-aligned Commander decks.
Ultimately, while we can see the present, predicting the future of MTG is a different matter entirely. Due to this, we’ll just have to wait patiently to see what happens in the coming weeks and months. While Secret Lair has been beset by delays recently, hopefully it won’t be long before the Mahō Gakuin Seishun Hakusho drop reaches players’ hands. After that, the impact of this new reprint should become clear.
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