Thanks to their popularity, the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander precons have caused plenty of price spikes. While Silverquill Influence led the charge, spiking an entire archetype’s price, the other Commander precons, like Witherbloom Pestilence, have also caused their fair share of chaos. Thanks to this deck, Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is the latest card to spike in price, due to fantastic synergy with the deck’s face Commander.
MTG The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride
Released in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride wants to sacrifice high-power creatures to turn them into extra cards and land drops. Needing to Saddle the sacrificial creature is a bit of a downside, but Haste allows The Gitrog to try and connect immediately. Between three opponents,in Commander, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride should be able to deal combat damage somewhere, making it surprisingly consistent.
Combined with overstatted creatures like Lupine Prototype and Sheltering Ancient, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride can essentially refill your hand and ramp you multiple turns ahead for cheap. While this synergy is often enough to make The Gitrog worth running, this also allows you to take advantage of Landfall effects. Cards like Rampaging Baloths and Ob Nixilis, the Fallen get a ton of value alongside The Gitrog, setting up even bigger sacrificial swings in the future.
Thanks to this, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride has become an appealing inclusion in Dina, Essence Brewer Commander decks. While Dina can set up massive Saddle swings with The Gitrog and can draw a few extra cards, both of these cards just seem like natural payoffs to the same synergy. If Dina gets killed a bunch and becomes uncastable in the Command Zone, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride can pick up the slack and turn your big bodies into card draw. With both cards working towards the same goal, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride has appeared in 971 different Dina, Essence Brewer decks.
The Spike
Despite some spikes in demand in early March, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride didn’t start spiking in price until the reveal of the Secrets of Strixhaven Precons. Following their April 1st reveal, demand gradually increased, with 401 near-mint copies being sold since then. Thanks to this, a once-$0.88 card now costs $4.69 after shipping at the absolute cheapest, a 415% price spike.
Sadly, for those looking to find a cheaper copy of this card, you’re out of luck. Thanks to massive shipping costs, prize pack promos for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride start at about $7.10. While Extended Art copies aren’t quite as expensive, $5.75 is the lowest price they are currently available for.
The Future
While demand for The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride seems steady and climbing, the card’s long-term financial future seems suspect. Since the current demand for the Frog is due to a Secrets of Strixhaven Face Commander, it is likely rather temporary. Once Marvel Super Heroes Precons hit shelves, players’ attention will turn to the new precons, eliminating much of The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride’s demand overnight.
That said, this card sees play in far more Commander decks than just Dina, Essence Brewer. Appearing over 28,000 different decks, the card is popular with Commanders that enable Landfall shenanigans like Glarb, Calamity’s Augur and The Necrobloom. Thanks to this, the current spotlight might be all that Gitrog needs to keep a respectable price tag.
All of that said, as usual, it’s impossible to truly predict the future, especially with something as fickle as the MTG secondary market. Thanks to this, only time will tell what will happen to The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride for sure.
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