It’s not uncommon for upgrades to recent MTG Commander Precons to see price increases. Generally, a few choice upgrades across the most popular Precons see a temporary price increase as players rush to purchase them for their preconstructed deck. For whatever reason, Duskmourn’s preconstructed decks are a bit different from the rest.
Generally, two or three different Precons will see upgrades rise in price. This time, however, players only seem to really care about one Precon in particular. Everyone is losing their minds over Endless Punishment, and anything that could help Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls do its job better is seeing sudden price spikes. This has also caused a classic MTG grouphug card to see a price increase this week.
Underworld Dreams
Underworld Dreams is capable of doing tons of damage to the right deck. Most Commander decks want to draw a lot of cards, and Underworld Dreams seriously taxes the player that wants to draw lots of cards. At minimum, since every player draws for turn, Underworld Dreams will consistently satisfy Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls’ triggered ability, allowing the card to grow and draw three cards per turn cycle. Since this rings true, we suspect that this is the cause of the price spike for Underworld Dreams.
Outside of Valgavoth, Underworld Dreams sees rather consistent play in other grouphug strategies. Nekusar, the Mindrazer is another obvious home for Underworld Dreams since it essentially doubles the lethality of what the Commander wants to do.
In terms of price, Underworld Dreams has a ton of different variants. All of the nonfoil ones are seeing similar price increases, with exception to Legends, which is the most expensive of the bunch. All of these cards have increased to the $3-4 range from various amounts. The Theros Beyond Death one pictured above spiked from just 30 cents to about $3.50 since the end of September.
Of course, the Legends and Secret Lair copies are the more expensive versions of Underworld Dreams that players have available for purchase. These also appear to be seeing price increases, with the Legends variant beginning to jump towards $50 from $40. The Secret Lair variant has a much more obvious spike, jumping from $10 to $30 in its market average throughout September and October. Judging from recent sales, this card variant also seems to be pushing towards $50.
One of the Better Valgavoth Enablers?
Underworld Dreams punishes players for doing something that many Commander players enjoy: drawing cards. Even if Valgavoth gets removed, which is pretty likely with Underworld Dreams around, this card can continue to do some serious damage. It’s not shocking at all that this card is seeing a price spike with these considerations.
