For Commander players, Reality Fracture brought a variety of new legends to the table. Beyond just the wealth of options in the main set, the Multiverse Reforged precon debuted a bunch of sweet build-arounds. This includes an incredible Sphinx Typal payoff, whose hype has caused other Sphinx creatures to increase in price. Now, Tivit, Seller of Secrets is the latest Sphinx to see its value skyrocket.
MTG Tivit, Seller of Secrets
Printed as the secondary Commander in the Obscura Operation Commander precon, Tivit, Seller of Secrets offers a decent chunk of value, though it is a bit clunky. In a traditional four-player game, you’ll end up with some combination of five Clues and Treasures each time this creature enters or connects. While your opponents can choose to give you the least useful token at the time, you always end up ahead in the exchange.
Over the years, this legend has become a popular Commander build, with just under 13,000 decks, according to EDHREC. By adding token doublers and blink effects like
Soulherder
Soulherder
Whenever a creature is exiled from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
At the beginning of your end step, you may exile another target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control.
, you can flood the board with Clues and Treasures quickly. Assuming you can keep connecting in combat, you can convert these tokens into infinite turns with
Time Sieve
Time Sieve
{T}, Sacrifice five artifacts: Take an extra turn after this one.
. You can also incorporate other Voting cards, such as
Expropriate
Expropriate
Council's dilemma — Starting with you, each player votes for time or money. For each time vote, take an extra turn after this one. For each money vote, choose a permanent owned by the voter and gain control of it. Exile Expropriate.
, to further maximize Tivit’s final ability.
That said, while Tivit was popular as a Commander, even seeing cEDH play, the Sphinx didn’t see much use in the 99. While Tivit does routinely appear alongside Commanders like
Marneus Calgar
Marneus Calgar
Double strike
Master Tactician — Whenever one or more tokens you control enter, draw a card.
Chapter Master — {6}: Create two 2/2 white Astartes Warrior creature tokens with vigilance.
or
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Breya, Etherium Shaper
When Breya enters, create two 1/1 blue Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying.
{2}, Sacrifice two artifacts: Choose one —
• Breya deals 3 damage to target player or planeswalker.
• Target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn.
• You gain 5 life.
, it’s generally too clunky without a ton of specialized support.
That said,
The Ur-Sphinx
The Ur-Sphinx
Eminence — As long as The Ur-Sphinx is in the command zone or on the battlefield, other Sphinx spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Flying
Whenever one or more Sphinxes you control attack, each player mills that many cards. For each player, you may cast a card that player milled this way without paying its mana cost.
gives Tivit exactly the type of support it needs to be effective in the 99, with the creature’s cost reduction seriously reducing this card’s clunk. From there, the Treasures this legend provides help ramp into the nine-drop Commander, something this deck desperately needs. Tivit will also likely stick around thanks to its Ward ability, making it a great way to trigger The Ur-Sphinx’s attack trigger.
With all this upside, Tivit already shows up in over 3,300 The Ur-Sphinx decks and is only climbing as The Ur-Sphinx gets more popular. With its newfound home, Tivit’s demand has risen, and its price tag has followed suit.
The Spike
Tivit’s rise in demand lined up directly with the reveal of the Multiverse Reforged precon and The Ur-Sphinx on September 16th. 35 near-mint foil copies from the Obscura Operation precon sold that day alone, compared to zero sales the previous two days.
Since then, demand has stayed consistent, and Tivit’s value has continued to rise as supply has fallen. Currently, only 17 near-mint foil listings are available, starting at $11.48 including shipping. This represents a 274% price spike since before The Ur-Sphinx was spoiled.
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a better deal among the other variants, either. As a collector booster exclusive, non-foil copies of Tivit start at $13. The same is true for non-foil extended-art copies, and foil extended-art variants start at $19.99. Even at worse conditions, there are no listings cheaper than $11.48 across the board.
Shouldn’t Last Forever
Although Tivit’s price has kept increasing lately, there’s reason to believe it will fall again in the long run. After all, most of this card’s recent demand is directly tied to The Ur-Sphinx’s hype. This isn’t surprising, as Reality Fracture officially released just over a week ago, and Commander players are still fleshing out their new decks.
Yet, as is typical for hype driven by a specific Commander, players will inevitably shift their attention as spoilers for the next set are revealed. With MTG Star Trek just over a month out, Tivit’s demand shouldn’t take long to fall.
As per usual, though, predicting the future in MTG is extremely difficult. Any number of factors, like printing more Sphinx support in future sets, could significantly affect Tivit’s long-term demand. With this in mind, we need to wait and see how things play out.
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