With the spoiler season for Lorwyn Eclipsed well underway, MTG players are understandably busy assessing all the new cards. With plenty of powerful mythics and an absolutely insane new Goblin, there’s no shortage of cards to admire. That said, this isn’t the only MTG set that has players’ attention.
Even almost two months after its initial release date, MTG Avatar is still moving the MTG markets. Considering the number of unique and powerful Commanders in the set, like Toph, the First Metalbender, this isn’t hugely surprising. What is odd, however, is the way that Tannuk, Memorial Ensign just decided to spike out of nowhere.
MTG Tannuk, Memorial Ensign
From Edge of Eternities, Tannuk, Memorial Ensign is an uncommon with a seriously powerful Landfall ability. For starters, pinging each opponent on each of your land drops isn’t bad at all. In decks that can sacrifice and replay lands from the graveyard, like the World Shaper precon, for instance, Tannuk is surprisingly deadly.
While steady damage is already a potent strategy, Tannuk gets even better when playing multiple lands. While it’ll only trigger once per turn, getting to draw a card for effectively nothing is incredible value. Naturally, card draw is good within any deck, but it’s especially potent within a Toph, the First Metalbender shell.
Since nontoken artifacts are lands when Toph is in play, getting consistent value out of Tannuk, Memorial Ensign is a breeze. Not only can you simply play tons of low or zero-cost artifacts, but Toph’s Earthbending ability is easily exploitable, too. So long as you have a relevant sacrifice effect, getting two land drops per turn feels like an inevitability.
Thanks to this synergy, Tannuk, Memorial Ensign has become incredibly popular within Toph, the First Metalbender decks. According to EDHREC, Tannuk appears in 58% of Toph decks, which is over 9,000 lists. This has caused a significant bump in the card’s play rate, as it only appears in 38,000 total decks.
Unsurprisingly, all of this extra demand from MTG Avatar has pushed the price of Tannuk, Memorial Ensign up. Curiously, while this spike definitely appears to be MTG Avatar-related, it took a month for anything to happen.
The Spike
Following the release of MTG Avatar on November 21st, there was an immediate spike in sales for Tannuk, Memorial Ensign. In one week, over 750 near-mint non-foil copies of this card were sold. Miraculously, this huge increase only managed to push the price of Tannuk up $0.11, from $0.25 to $0.36.
While continued demand for Tannuk caused a further 750 sales throughout December, that only pushed the price up to $0.54. On the 25th, however, the price of Tannuk, Memorial Ensign suddenly jumped for seemingly no reason. Following a sharp climb, near-mint non-foil copies of Tannuk, Memorial Ensign are now selling for $1.72 on average.
Oddly, there wasn’t any massive surge in sales or a new home for Tannuk revealed at this time. Without a major spike, you might think that steady demand had simply drained most of the available supply from the market. Curiously, this didn’t seem to happen either, as there are still 110 near-mint listings offering 601 copies.
Realistically, this sudden price rise is likely due to sellers capitalizing on demand, letting lower-priced copies sell out. Whatever the reason, Tannuk, Memorial Ensign has already seen a 592% price spike since its past lows. Considering it’s still a rather cheap MTG card, there’s definitely room to grow, should demand continue.
Uncommon Rarity
At the moment, it’s unclear which direction Tannuk, Memorial Ensign will end up going in the near future. There are still many copies available for purchase, but another steady month of demand could change that. Given the popularity of Landfall decks, there’s a distinct possibility this could happen, although Lorwyn Eclipsed is coming along.
With -1/-1 Counters, and typal synergies at the forefront, there’s a real chance interests may shift from Landfall-focused decks. Should this happen, demand for Tannuk, Memorial Ensign will likely decrease, allowing the price to stabilize or fall. That said, Landfall is an incredibly popular mechanic in MTG, so there’s a strong chance we’ll get more support sooner rather than later.
When more support does inevitably come along, Tannuk, Memorial Ensign could easily see a second, far greater, spike. Unless it gets reprinted in the near future, the uncommon rarity of this card may be a strong selling point. While uncommons are somewhat plentiful, they don’t have the extra foil or art variants most rares and mythics get.
Thanks to only having one variant, uncommons like Tannuk, Memorial Ensign can often feel rarer than actually rare MTG cards. This, in turn, can make them susceptible to price spikes, should demand persist for long enough. Whether or not this will end up happening to Tannuk, Memorial Ensign, however, remains to be seen.
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