Since the set’s release on November 21st, the MTG Avatar set has been making huge waves pretty much everywhere. Appearing in pretty much every competitive format, and all over Commander too, it’s hard to understate this set’s impact. Unsurprisingly, this strong performance has also had a major impact on the MTG financial markets.
In particular, the most popular MTG Avatar Commander, Fire Lord Azula, has caused no end of price spikes. Even one month on from prerelease events first kicking off, these spikes miraculously haven’t slowed down. Now, Stunt Double is the latest synergistic Avatar support piece to spike in price.
MTG Stunt Double
First printed in Conspiracy: Take the Crown, and later reprinted via The List and Ravnica: Clue Edition, Stunt Double is almost a decade old at this point. In that time, the card has been played in around 32,000 Commander decks, according to EDHREC. While this might not seem like a lot, Stunt Double has tons of uses as a generic copy engine.
The classic use case for a copy engine like Stunt Double is creating an infinite combo alongside cards like Felidar Guardian. By copying Felidar Guardian, you can easily flicker these cards back and forth, netting you infinite enters and leaves the battlefield triggers. While this isn’t a wincon in itself, anything like Impact Tremors or Zulaport Cutthroat can easily get the job done.
Outside of this combo, simply getting to copy any creature on the battlefield means Stunt Double will always have utility. Whether you’re copying your own creature with a powerful ETB ability or copying an opponent’s threat, the options are limitless. While this is true for most copy cards in MTG, like Clone, Stunt Double has a trick up its sleeve.
Thanks to having Flash, Stunt Double is naturally far better at copying your opponent’s creatures. On top of this, there’s also the synergy with Fire Lord Azula, which has caused this card to see a steep uptick in play. So long as you play Stunt Double while Azula is attacking, you’ll get two copies of this card, meaning even more copying shenanigans.
If you’ve got Katara, the Fearless in play to double Azula’s copy trigger, you can get even more Stunt Doubles. Alternatively, copying Aang, at the Crossroads can prove surprisingly lucrative too. Not only does this let you dig for another free creature, but it’s also an easy way to flip Aang, since you’ll need to sacrifice the copy.
The Spike
Thanks to the synergy with both Fire Lord Azula and Aang, at the Crossroads, there’s been a healthy uptick in demand for Stunt Double recently. Around 2,000 of the 32,000 total Commander decks are due to these two cards, according to EDHREC. While this isn’t a massive spike in demand, Stunt Double isn’t the most accessible MTG card.
Despite having a trio of printings, only the Conspiracy: Take the Crown variant provided any real supply. Even then, this set was hardly a best seller, so there weren’t a tremendous number of copies available, even before this spike. Thanks to this, it has only taken a few hundred copies being sold to push prices up dramatically.
In the past few months, the most recent reprint, from Ravnica: Clue Edition, has seen the biggest price spike. Back in mid-October, before Azula was spoiled, copies of Stunt Double were selling for around $0.77 on average. Over time, this price has steadily crept up as sales increased, especially following the set’s release.
Now, near-mint non-foil copies of Stunt Double from Ravnica: Clue Edition are selling for around $3.49 on average. Notably, new listings for these copies are currently slightly more expensive, at around $3.55, not including shipping. With only 10 listings for this variant left on TCGplayer, there’s a non-zero chance this price will continue to climb.
Unfortunately, if you’re hoping for any deals on cheap near-mint copies, you’re out of luck, as this spike has happened across all variants. Even worse condition copies have all been bought up, so $3.55 is the best you’re going to get.
The Future
Looking ahead, Stunt Double is a bit of a difficult one to pin down. While this card is definitely good with Fire Lord Azula and plenty of other decks, too, Clone cards are all over the place. The titular Clone, for instance, typically sells for around $0.27, thanks to being reprinted tons. Other cards like the cheaper but more restrictive Jwari Shapeshifter, however, sell for $5.86.
Considering the fairly low supply, Stunt Double retaining its current post-spike price wouldn’t be a monumental surprise. Without reprints, $4 is about the going rate for a no-strings-attached Clone effect with somewhat low supply. This, however, could easily change if Wizards decided to reprint Stunt Double again.
Outside of its slightly specific flavor, there’s nothing stopping Wizards from reprinting this card in a precon or bonus sheet. It’s arguably a better choice than Clone for this role, since it’s a strict upgrade, and power creep remains ever-present. Despite this, there’s no telling when, or if, Wizards will reprint this card.
Ultimately, as always, we can’t predict the future when it comes to this price spike. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the near future. Don’t be surprised if prices continue to climb in the short term, however, as supply is definitely at a low point.
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