Unsurprisingly, given they’re in the set’s name Tarkir: Dragonstorm is a haven for Dragon fans. All kinds of different Dragons are making their way to the Standard format and, by extension, to Dragon Typal Commander decks everywhere. It should make sense, considering this, that a lot of the more powerful Dragon support is increasing in price.
Fittingly, Tiamat, from Adventures of the Forgotten Realms, is leading the charge. The Mother of all Dragons is one of the most potent Dragon Commanders in the game, and there is now a mad dash to obtain it.
Tiamat
Tiamat costs a ton of mana to cast, but with the right setup, it can end the game on the spot. For seven mana, as long as you cast her, Tiamat will search up five Dragons right to your hand. If you have something like the new Dracogenesis in play, those Dragons will all cost zero mana to cast.
In fact, with a Dracogenesis in play, resolving Tiamat wins a game of Commander on the spot. You simply search up Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Niv-Mizzet, Visionary alongside a Dragon that draws a card. Any number of Dragons can do this. The Ur-Dragon and Loch Dragon are just two examples.
From there, your Niv-Mizzets will create an infinite feedback loop. Niv-Mizzet, Parun will deal damage to something whenever you draw a card. As long as you deal damage to an opponent, Niv-Mizzet, Visionary will trigger and draw another card. Once you’ve drawn your deck, target something other than an opponent with Parun’s effect to stop drawing cards. From there, cast Terror of the Peaks alongside all of your other Dragons to end the game, but make sure you kill off your own Niv-Mizzet, Visionary before your start targeting opponents.
For reference, Omniscience or infinite mana could replace Dracogenesis, but Dracogenesis is even better than the ten-mana enchantment because it allows you to cast Tiamat from your Command Zone for free. Omniscience only grants alternate casting costs to cards in your hand.
Otherwise, Tiamat is simply an amazing value engine in any Dragon Typal Commander deck. Even if you’re not trying to win via an infinite combo, Tiamat is a massive 7/7 threat that refuels your hand. The card is comparable to Atraxa, Grand Unifier in a Dragon deck. Thanks to the new Omen cards, Tiamat can even essentially find Instant and Sorcery spells.
With this in mind, it should be no surprise that Tiamat is increasing in price.
The Price
Normally, we’d include a graph for this section, but none of the graphs do a good job of representing Tiamat’s price spike due to how explosive it is. The cheapest copy of Tiamat is now regularly selling for $20 and up. The two most recent sales, as of the writing of this article, were for $26. Very few listings are available across all Tiamat variants as well, suggesting a massive uptick in demand. At the moment, $20 is a fantastic price for Tiamat, but expect to pay higher.
Tiamat’s borderless variant appears to be going for a great deal more than its normal one. Expect to pay around $50 for these at the absolute least, but this already appears to be basically impossible to find. According to recent sales and listed prices, $75 is likely the cheapest that you’re going to pay for this card. Now, nonfoils are selling for a wide range of prices ($28-$100), and foils are pushing towards $150.
Tiamats from the Secret Lair drop are now going for a bit shy of $200, which is an absolutely disgusting price spike from $50. Any premium variant of Tiamat is quickly becoming worth its weight in gold.
Finally, if you want the most expensive version of Tiamat on the market, Adventures of the Forgotten Realms offers special Ampersand treatments for its chase cards. This variant of Tiamat’s cheapest available price is about $260 – a $120 price jump before things started going crazy.
Want Tiamat? Pick it Up ASAP
These ridiculous price spikes suggest that the cheapest variant of Tiamat is only going to keep getting more expensive. Sure, once players’ attention shifts away from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Tiamat is likely to fall a bit in price. That said, I personally doubt that even the cheapest variant will fall back below $20. Dragon Typal is one of the most popular Commander decks period. Even once Final Fantasy releases, we’ll still likely be getting a healthy stream of Dragon cards. Ancient Copper Dragon‘s reprint is just one example.
If you want Tiamat for your Commander decks, try to snap it up before it glides further out of your price range.
